Dangerous Enemies
by White Angel of Auralon
Summary: A new threat has appeared on Planet Arus. The Voltron Force has to face an enemy that works in different ways to what they are used from Zarkon and Lotor. But an unexpected revelation about one of their members also leads into a direction their enemy didn't plan for.
1. Plotting

**Hi everybody. I have written a new Voltron story. It's set in the DOTU universe around the time when Merla comes into the story, but with a twist to canon. Hope you like it. Pairing K / A. Rating M is because I'm not sure if a few scenes can be covered with T.**

 **Permanent disclaimer: I don't own anything of the Voltron universe, I just play around in this wonderful sandbox.**

* * *

 **Plotting**

King Zarkon of Planet Doom had thought long and hard about his recent attempts to conquer Planet Arus. The main problem about the operation was the thrice cursed Voltron Force. The space explorers that had escaped his prison on Planet Doom, after being brought there with a slave ship, had proven to be a right menace. All his evil plans, all robeasts that he had sent, all the magic the witch Haggar had used, all useless for one reason or another. But he would have the planet. And this time, he would take all things into consideration. All aspects of why previous plans had failed.

He knew that his son, Prince Lotor, wanted to marry Princess Allura. But the princess couldn't stand him. Not that much of a problem. She could be forced to comply, be it by blackmail, magic or simple superior force. But any attempt to kidnap her to make her Lotor's property had been thwarted. Mainly by the pilot of the black lion, Commander Keith Kogane. That man, as much as he hated acknowledging anybody else's strength and power, was a real threat. Lotor's reports about their clashes were also quite clear, even if Lotor didn't want to admit it. Zarkon looked at the files of the five pilots. Lance McClain, Pidge Stoker and Hunk Garrett were good pilots, all well-trained and skilled, but on their own, they weren't competition for Lotor. But Keith, well, he was a class of his own.

Keith not only was an incredible pilot and fighter, he was also smart and willing to go to extremes to do his job. And more than that. He had got many reports from Lotor about how Keith had appeared to save the Princess Allura from one attack or another. Lotor was better in sword fighting than Keith, but not by much and mainly if he managed to pull a trick on the other man. And the main injuries that Lotor managed to land had all been when Keith was otherwise distracted with saving the Princess. And for some reason he didn't stay down for long, no matter which injury he got. No, if any plan to capture the Princess, and with her control over Planet Arus, was to succeed, they needed to get rid of that man. But a normal assassination attempt wouldn't be very successful. Ever since the Voltron Force had been established at Planet Arus, the security system had been overworked and it was much harder to get into the Castle of Lions than at the beginning.

Something that the spies he had sent had also accredited to the Commander of the Voltron Force. That meant, he needed a good plan that would allow him to kill two birds with one stone. Keith Kogane needed to be taken out of the equation for Lotor to have any chance to capture the princess. But the man couldn't suspect anything. And, he hated admitting it, his own strategies were by now known to the great strategist that caused him to have that much trouble in conquering Planet Arus. But there was somebody that Keith Kogane hadn't ever gone up against so far. And, Zarkon had to grin evilly at the thought, it wouldn't be hard to get this person to assist with the new plan.

In the end, only success of the plan counted. If his partner wanted to fulfil some goals of her own, well, he didn't mind, as long as he could conquer Planet Arus once and for all. He was King Zarkon after all. And the constant failures weren't good for his reputation.

* * *

Queen Merla, the Queen of Darkness of the Drule Empire, listened to the report of King Zarkon about the trouble with the Voltron Force. She had been surprised that a powerful conqueror like Zarkon, and a nearly as famous one as his son Prince Lotor, who had won much acknowledgement for conquering a large number of planets on his own, had that much trouble with just one planet. Even one with Voltron protecting it.

"I see, you have tried to win against the Voltron Force in a lot of different ways, but the mere technical data doesn't explain it, even if the incompetence of some of your military commanders, like Yurak, explain some defeats," Merla commented.

"Very true, Queen Merla. There were many plans that should have worked, but somehow they managed to win," Zarkon nodded, "Which is why I went over all the collected data that we gathered ever since the space explorers managed to reach the planet."

"Yes, analysing the strengths and weaknesses of the opponent would be a good place to start. I'm actually impressed that you got their Galaxy Garrison files as well," Merla stated.

"I have a very talented hacker in my services. The constant failures against Voltron couldn't be explained by simple luck anymore. And we had them a couple of times, but they managed to escape again. The most common occurrence was when we had something we could use to blackmail them, but in all cases, something unexpected happened to let them escape and form Voltron, which caused the destruction of several robeasts and ultimately the retreat of the respective forces that were working on the plan," Zarkon nodded, "The main problem by now is that the Commander of the Voltron Force is becoming too good at predicting how we will attack, which makes things more difficult."

"Then let's see if I can't bring in a fresh perspective. But I will demand a price for my help," Merla declared.

"I didn't expect anything else, Queen Merla," Zarkon agreed, "And I might have an idea that you might find appealing."

Merla grinned. It was nice to work with somebody that could keep up with her own mind. She took the files on the Voltron Force, read over them, and listened to the ideas that her fellow Drule ruler presented. Yes, he did have the right idea. And she liked the plan he had come up with. This would give her some very pleasant entertainment and had a good chance at bringing Planet Arus down and under the rule of Planet Doom. And with her way of doing things, and his power and technological supplies, they had a good chance at victory.

* * *

On Planet Arus there was a celebration for the restauration of a historical market place, which Princess Allura, as the ruler of the planet, was going to open today. While there were still constant attacks from Planet Doom and King Zarkon to worry about, the people of Planet Arus knew that the only way to beat the enemy was rebuilding what had been taken from them. And a large group of people had assembled here today to see their princess reopen the market place. It had taken five months to clean up the rubble of the attack that had destroyed the market in the first place and then another four to build the new houses around it.

But now, after the work of many people being invested into this important project, it was finally done. Next to the princess, the other four members of the Voltron Force were present, partly to be protection detail for the Princess, partly to celebrate with the people.

"This place has really changed since we first came here," Hunk commented.

"You can say that again, big guy," Lance agreed, "It's great what the people managed to do in comparably little time. Especially as we don't have too many heavy machines for things like these on the planet yet."

"I just hope that this time around Doom will stay away," Pidge threw in.

"Except for the symbolic value, this place isn't a primary target," Keith commented, while keeping an eye on the assembled people, taking his job of protecting the princess very serious, "There isn't any military value in attacking here and Arus, by now, has other places to do business. I'm more worried about the recent lack of attacks. I think Zarkon plans something big."

"You could be right, but we hardly have any way to find out what it could be," Lance commented.

"We can only be on guard," Hunk stated, "But we also need to enjoy life while we can. Look at the Princess. She's looking wonderful again. And the way she inspires her people is awesome."

Keith could only nod. He knew too well how wonderful Princess Allura looked like. But he refused to give into the constantly stronger urge to show her just how much he cared about her where anybody could see it. He had needed over a year to admit to himself that he was hopelessly in love with her. And he wasn't blind enough to not see that she also liked him more than a friend or even brother figure. She had special connections to all members of the Voltron Force by now, but in case of Pidge it was more like being an older sister figure to him, Lance was the teasing older brother and Hunk the reliable rock that, while they all liked to tease him sometimes, was basically the reliable cousin that you could always count on when things got difficult. But the way she smiled at him, it was unique for Keith. But should Prince Lotor or King Zarkon ever notice any kind of attraction between him and the Princess, well, they wouldn't hesitate to use one against the other.

And the past had shown that they could infiltrate the planet far too easily. They had spies around, that much he knew for sure. He just couldn't find them all. He didn't have enough time. Still, he was working on a better system, but, as the technological development of the planet wasn't as advanced as it had once been in the past, there were holes in any system he could think up. He could reduce the danger levels, but, as much as he wanted to, he couldn't eliminate them fully. Which meant, until they could defeat Zarkon and Lotor, he would have to be very careful in public how he treated the Princess.

It was damnably hard, but he would rather hack his own arm off than letting Allura be hurt because others used him against her. In private, in the security of the Castle of Lions, they could be a bit more relaxed. His bringing her flowers from hard to reach places was one of the things he did to show her how much she meant to him. He knew she loved all kinds of flowers and it was one of his favourite pastimes to watch her working in her small personal part of the garden. Nanny might not think it appropriate, but he knew that it was one way for her to let go of everything and be herself for a short while.

Still, he wouldn't risk anybody finding out by being overtly affectionate with her, even if he knew that she would like him to be. He planned to have an honest conversation with her soon, as he also didn't want to lose her, if she misunderstood his feelings. But for now, they had to be very careful. He had to smile when Allura got a small bouquet of flowers from a young girl with brown hair that she wore in twin pigtails. He loved seeing her interacting with children. She was wonderful with them.

The opening of the market place went off without a problem and after a few hours, during which the princess interacted with her people, listened to their worries and hopes, it was time to return to the castle. They had taken a carriage and their horses to the village with Nanny, who was there to assist Allura with her official duties during the day, with Coran being back at the castle in case of an emergency. They were only about a ten minutes' ride away from the castle, which was close enough to not need the lions. There were enough guards otherwise to protect the people and the princess.

Keith performed a few last checks to be sure that everything was okay, before he got into the saddle of his horse, riding alongside the carriage, in which Allura sat next to Nanny, waving to the people that were waving back, saying goodbye to her.

* * *

In the shadows of some houses there were less happy people. These were spies that Queen Merla had placed in the village, after it was known that the Voltron Force with the Princess would be present for the opening of some ancient market place. The Queen didn't have any interest in the market place. It wasn't really useful as a strategic target and the only reason they were even here was that the princess had come to open it. While in the past, this would have been used as an opportunity to attack the people and the Voltron Force, the collected data of King Zarkon indicated that it would only lead to another failure, and the Voltron Force being set onto full alert again.

No, their job was different. They were to evaluate the individual members of the Voltron Force while they weren't piloting their lions. They had a lot of data about them while fighting, but Queen Merla believed in knowing the enemy on more than that level. Strategies worked out much better if you knew personal weaknesses of your opponents and outings like this one were perfect to gather data you normally wouldn't gain. Something that Prince Lotor didn't understand. He would have rushed in, trying to use the time the princess of Arus was outside of her palace to kidnap her, which would have ultimately failed again.

No, they were determining how to attack when the right time came. And their cameras transferred the whole recording of the event to the space cutter of the queen directly. She would come up with a strategy to finally conquer this planet for the glory of the Drule Empire and especially her own glory.

* * *

Queen Merla watched the five recordings of the two hours long event at that market place. Each of her spies had concentrated on another member of the Voltron Force. Her personal interest was on the main targets. Princess Allura was a bit naïve, as far as she could tell, but there was a backbone of steel in her, which was also noticeable. And honestly, any princess that would take up piloting a Voltron lion to protect her people from attackers, well, she was many levels above her normal opponents. Queen Merla would freely acknowledge another warrior if the praise was justified. Princess Allura was no competition for herself of course, but she stood out against other princesses that had lived on planets that she had conquered.

It was no wonder that Prince Lotor was interested in her. Even if she personally considered him to be a fool. She hadn't openly commented on it while working out the plan with King Zarkon, but about half of the plans that Lotor had to kidnap Princess Allura failed because he was an idiot. Had he first secured his success before trying to have his way with the pretty princess, well, they would have won already. But that was why a woman of her calibre would always be superior to a man. She didn't let her hormones rule her decisions. She would win first, then take her price. And, this time, she seemed to have a very special price to look forward to.

Keith Kogane was every part the dangerous opponent that King Zarkon had identified him as. He hadn't let his guard down during the whole ceremony, even if the other three had done so from time to time. Even if there wasn't any sign of something being up, he had made sure to keep an eye on the Princess and possible attack points. Had they tried anything, she was sure he would have got the princess to safety within a short time, all while already being prepared to counter attack. Yes, it was clear that he was above the level of warriors that she normally got to deal with. And that was exciting.

He was a very fine specimen of a male. His body was definitely well-trained and he had very good looks in his favour. Zarkon was right that she would be interested in him. She was known to take prisoners into her bed, should they interest her enough. That was actually the norm for any powerful leader in the Drule Empire. Zarkon had done so, Lotor had a harem of girls he regularly played with and she knew other rulers of planets were similar. It was the right of the powerful to demand that those they defeated served them. She had a few males that provided her with sexual pleasures. There were some Drules that had earned the honour to be her bed mates, but they were so boring. They always gave into her demands way too easily. No, she loved conquering her prey and this prey, well, it would be exciting to finally have this proud man as her toy.

And it was about time she provided her part of the Drule Empire with an heir. She would evaluate if Commander Keith Kogane was worthy of donating his seed for that project. But at least he was in the closer election, which should be an honour for him. Well, she would make him see things her way very soon. And in doubt, well, she was very sure that he could be convinced to obey with the safety of the Princess.

* * *

Lotor was attacking Planet Arus again. He had worked out a very clever plan to capture the Princess Allura this time around. Ever since the failed plan where he and Haggar had let it appear that Haggar's cat had killed Princess Allura with a dagger, but which had been seen through by the Voltron Force again, curse them to hell, he had wanted to get revenge against them and finally have the one woman he deemed worthy to become his wife and queen. He would have Princess Allura, but he needed a good plan for this to work. He had finally convinced his father to give him another robeast to attack the planet. And it was a special robeast. This one could send out electric nets that would fry the electric systems of the lions, and even Voltron would be helpless against the effect.

The plan was simple. The robeast would attack some random town on the planet and the Voltron Force would come out to defend the people. When they arrived, his new robeast would trap all the lions in the nets, which would short-circuit their systems. Then he would enter the blue lion, take the princess and leave the rest of the pilots to their fates. They would all be defeated and enslaved on Doom. His father still wanted them to die in the arena, being displayed for his subjects as his newest, most glorious victory. And he agreed, the Voltron Force pilots needed to be made a public example off. They had embarrassed the mighty power of Planet Doom and had to pay for that. And he would force Princess Allura to watch how her friends died in the arena, then she would realise that she belonged to him and nobody would save her again.

Once he was in position, he had the robeast launched and then just watched how things were going. It wouldn't be long now anymore.

"It's an attack on Toraine," Coran stated at the alarms that were ringing inside the castle command centre, "Prince Lotor has come with a new robeast."

"We will destroy it like we always do," Keith declared, "Let's get to the lions, team."

"We'll show them that we don't want any of Doom's toys here," Pidge exclaimed.

"They should really have got that message by now," Hunk growled.

The five pilots ran towards their entrances after Coran had raised the platform for them. Soon after they were in the ships, flying towards their respective lions. When Keith arrived at his lion, he didn't hesitate to insert the key to Black Lion.

"We need to hurry to get to the place where the robeast attacks. But be careful. We don't know yet which features the new one has," Keith warned the other four.

"Well, probably a whole bunch of nasty weapons," Lance commented.

"I would guess they will try something with a sword," Pidge stated.

"Yes, but the last robeasts they sent all had one thing in common. A special ability that was designed to give us major trouble. Let's not underestimate the enemy," Keith reasoned.

"Keith is right. We have to be careful," Allura agreed.

The others confirmed and the lions flew towards Toraine to help the people.

* * *

"Queen Merla, the attack has begun and we have confirmation about the launching of the Voltron lions from the castle," One of the female robots that served under Merla reported.

"Very good. Prince Lotor has no idea that he's just giving me the distraction I need to gain the bargaining chip to blackmail the Princess and the Commander of the Voltron Force into surrendering," Merla smirked.

"Yes, my queen," The robot stated and the hidden fleet that Merla commanded descended onto a part of Arus that was currently not watched at all, thanks to all eyes being on the more visible robeast attack.

* * *

The lions had some trouble with the electric nets that the robeast sent at them, which were a major problem for their systems.

"Keith, my lion doesn't respond to any commands I give," Allura reported in distress.

"We will find a solution," Keith assured her, "I just need to find a way around those nets."

Currently Blue and Red Lion were both trapped in the nets that the robeast had fired at them and Green and Yellow Lion had had a nasty collision with a mountain when the robeast had smacked them away while they had attacked, trying to force it to lift the nets from the other two lions. Only Black Lion was currently in any shape to fight and Keith had to use all his skills as a pilot to avoid being trapped as well. On top of that, he was shooting at Lotor's ship, which was too close for his comfort, as it was clear that his target was the downed Blue Lion and with it Princess Allura. He would never let Lotor have her. He thought how to counter those nets. He looked at the nets that covered the other two lions. They weren't that large, but it was clear that they stuck to the lions in some way, taking out their systems. Which meant, he couldn't just tear them away, as then his own lion would fall to the trap. Truly a nasty robeast that Lotor had brought this time around.

"I have to discharge the net itself," Keith decided, "Lance, Allura, be ready for some unpleasant explosion, but I think the only way to get those nets off you is overcharging them."

"Just get to it Keith," Lance growled, as his lion was dead to him currently, "I don't want that monster to end us, just because the lions can't fight. The metal armour of the lions should be enough to protect me and the Princess from any small explosion."

"Yes, do it, Keith," Allura agreed.

"Take care of the other lions, Hunk and I are back on our feet and will distract the robeast," Pidge's comment came from the com-system.

"Alright, here I come," Keith stated and dived towards the two downed lions while Green and Yellow Lion shot their weapons at the robeast, forcing it to defend itself instead of trapping more of them.

* * *

"Hah, the idiot thinks he can save the two lions from the nets. As soon as one of them touches his Black Lion, he will suffer from the same effect and then I have won!" Lotor crowed triumphantly.

He watched how the main lion of Voltron closed in onto the other two lions, but when he expected the pilot to use any part of his lion to tear the net away, he was shocked to find that instead of that, he was dropping large metal knives onto the two lions, which caused electricity to flow from the separate parts of the net, making them spark dangerously.

"What the hell does he do there?" Lotor asked enraged, "No, if that continues, the nets will lose all their charge and then the lions could be useable again. Curse that man!"

Lotor shot some missiles at the Black Lion, but the pilot evaded them all without being hit. Finally, two explosions at the downed lions signalled the total discharge of the nets.

"That can't be true. Robeast, take them out before they can form Voltron!" Lotor commanded.

But it seemed it was too late. The five lions were in the, by now, very familiar formation, to form the robot. He could only watch, like many times before, how the lions became Voltron and then, after a fierce battle, where the pilots made sure to not be hit by any more of the special nets, the robeast was destroyed. Again. And the plan had worked so well until that stupid pilot of Black Lion found a way around the nets. He hated Keith Kogane, the Commander of the Voltron Force. Again he had thwarted him in winning the Princess. He knew that he didn't have a chance against Voltron without a robeast to back him up, so he retreated to Planet Doom. He wasn't looking forward to the mocking he would get from his father.

* * *

"Queen Merla, all operations have been performed successfully. Number of captives is three hundred and fifty, including, as ordered, the whole children from the orphanage," One of the robots reported.

"Very good," Merla nearly purred, "Now they will have to give into my demands. Open up a channel to the castle. I want to talk to them."

"As you command, Queen Merla," The robot confirmed and went to get the job done.

* * *

"Keith, Princess, we have an incoming message on a Drule frequency for the castle," Coran's picture appeared on the screens of the lions while they were flying back to the castle after the battle against the robeast.

"Who is it from?" Keith asked.

"I will open up the channel for you to listen into the message, but without them being able to see you," Coran stated.

"Greetings Castle of Lions, I am Queen Merla of the Drule Empire," A beautiful Drule woman spoke.

"I have heard of her. She's famous for being one of the best commanders in the Drule Empire and she rules over a part of the galaxy that is bigger than Zarkon's," Keith commented on the private line with the castle.

"What do you want, Queen Merla?" Coran asked, trying to not offend her immediately, but after the recent attack he was on guard.

"Oh, I just wanted to suggest a small exchange to you. You see, I have recently found out about the less than satisfying success of King Zarkon's attempts to conquer your planet. I have looked into things and I have decided to do things a bit differently. As far as I could determine, your Princess vehemently refuses any advances of Prince Lotor, which I can truly understand, as he didn't go about it very smart. I personally think he's an idiot. Your princess is a worthy warrior and you don't try to force somebody like her into a relationship she doesn't want without actually proving yourself as worthy. But I won't let a planet like yours mock the glory of the Drule Empire either anymore. My suggestion for this exchange is this:" The screen switched to showing a large number of Arusian people that were held at gun point by Merla's soldiers.

"No, my people!" Allura cried out.

"What did you do?" Coran demanded to know.

"I used the distraction that Prince Lotor's dilettantish newest attempt to kidnap your Princess and win against the Voltron Force to gain a few bargaining chips. I am willing to exchange all these people, including the cute orphans that lived in the village that I took hostage, against two hostages that will make you obey my orders. I am willing to promise your planet partial autonomy as part of my Empire, should my demands be met. I will also position my army as a defence for the planet against other attackers and only demand certain payments instead of taking all your people as slaves. Your planet could be very valuable to me in terms of supplying my army with raw materials that are unique to Planet Arus. You get one hour to think about my terms. A chance to have peace under my rule as High Queen and becoming part of the glorious Drule Empire, or you will have to watch the execution of my hostages," Merla put down her demands.

"Which hostages would you demand?" Coran asked, "We need to know that before we can decide anything."

If he was honest, the other conditions were much less unacceptable than anything that Lotor and Zarkon had ever demanded.

"I want Princess Allura and Commander Keith Kogane. And, as I know you will want to protest right now that I can't get your Princess, think about the results if you don't comply," Merla stated.

"We won't let the Princess be surrendered, you would only give her to that monster, Lotor," Nanny exclaimed, having heard everything while being in the command centre with Coran.

"Ah, I see, a reasonable worry," Merla nodded, "As I said, I don't like Lotor much. He's an idiot and doesn't deserve her. I would be willing to promise that I will keep her my personal prisoner and not hand her over to either King Zarkon or Prince Lotor. But your planet will only follow my orders, this much I could determine by analysing the whole conflict you have with King Zarkon, if I have your Princess as leverage. And who knows, perhaps the Princess and I could come to an understanding about her agreeing to become one of my warriors. I want your planet as part of the planets I conquered, but I'm willing to agree to some reasonable concessions. I can't be everywhere at once after all, and as long as you follow some basic rules, there is no reason for you to be slaves. I care for results, not details."

"Why do you want Commander Keith?" Coran asked.

"Because he is the most dangerous opponent I would have to face from your planet. He's the pilot of the Black Lion and the one that has been seeing through King Zarkon's and Prince Lotor's plans constantly. That man would definitely find ways to mess up my plans, which is why I want him out of my way. I won't kill him, don't worry, but I want him as my hostage so that he can't help you wiggle out of my demands. With him under my control, I control Voltron as well," Merla simply stated.

Coran hated to admit it, but she was right. Keith was a key person in their security measures. But they also couldn't let her kill the hostages.

"I will discuss the conditions with the Princess," Coran agreed to win time.

"Very good. I will call back in one hour," Merla confirmed and the screen went black again.

"You heard everything," Coran addressed the lions.

"Yes. Damn, this is a right mess," Lance groaned, "First Lotor and now that ultimatum."

"But we can't let those people die. All those children," Allura brought out.

"You can't give yourself up, Princess," Nanny exclaimed.

"But I also can't let them die. I could never live with myself," Allura countered.

"And this time Keith can't even trick the enemy into believing he was you, like he did in that snow storm," Pidge sighed, "The evil queen wants him as well. She's certainly smarter than Lotor, that's for sure."

"We are coming back to the castle," Keith informed Coran, "We need to plan and we don't have much time for it."

"Yes. We will see you soon," Coran confirmed.

* * *

Forty-five minutes later the discussion had come to the unpleasant result that they were doomed in both ways. They didn't want to surrender either Keith or Allura, but they couldn't live with letting all those people die. Their best bet was actually giving into the demands of Queen Merla. She had also sent an outline how Planet Arus would be integrated into her Empire, should they meet her demands. It wasn't a nice prospect, but far less horrible than what had been fact when Arus didn't have Voltron yet. The demand for supplies was steep, no question, but it would be manageable. Princess Allura would be 'educated' by Queen Merla in how she wanted her to rule the planet for the period of one year and, if she 'passed' the test, she would be allowed to return to her home planet and rule as Queen, with Merla being the High Queen of this part of her Empire.

Nobody liked the idea much, but, should there be no way for Keith and Allura to escape their capture before the change could be forced by Merla, at least the people wouldn't be killed anymore. The pilots planned to follow the space cutter of Merla to her base and rescue both Keith and Allura, but they also had to prepare for the worst. And nobody knew if Merla would keep her word.

"Alright, Keith and I will both carry tracking devices on our person to allow you to follow us to wherever Queen Merla will take us. I can only hope that we don't really need to give into her demands about making Arus part of her empire. The Drules are cruel to the people they rule," Allura stated.

"I know. We will give in for now, but as soon as there is a chance, we will drive her away. But the hostages have to be safe before we can do anything," Keith agreed.

The others nodded, all looking very unhappy about the decision. But Queen Merla held the better cards this time around. They just hoped that they would be able to turn things to the better, like they did in the past. Pidge and Lance took care of putting the tracking devices together in the remaining fifteen minutes that they had left of the ultimatum, while Keith and Allura got ready to face Queen Merla.

* * *

 **That's it for the first chapter. Until next time.**


	2. Prisoners

**Hi, everybody. Here is chapter two of the story. Happy reading.**

* * *

 **Prisoners**

Merla watched how the Voltron force landed in their lions. They probably hoped to find a way to quickly get back into them once the hostages were free. But she had planned for that. She wouldn't be stupid enough to underestimate any of these people. She watched how the Commander of the Voltron Force squeezed the Princess's shoulder, probably to give her some courage for what was going to happen. Well, while the Princess was a nice price, she actually didn't have much use for her, beyond trying to make her into a puppet ruler for her plans. It had worked out many times in the past already, when she had left the previous ruling family in official control over their planets. It was why many planets had surrendered with little trouble. And her mind control, if used over a prolonged period, would make them obey her orders as if they had always believed in her way of doing things.

It was very simple to manipulate people. Most were unwilling to fight, if the gain wasn't big enough. Sure, they all wanted to be free, but if freedom was too highly paid for, they would accept as much freedom as they could get, but the highest degree of safety. Arus wouldn't be different. She had offered a deal that the people would be glad to accept over time. Lotor and Zarkon had one flaw, their conquests were bloody and cost lots of people's lives. They also threw anybody's life away without care. Not that she cared about other people too much, but she knew how to use psychology to her advantage. People knew she could be cruel and merciless. But they also knew that if they just complied and let her rule, she wasn't too concerned about the details.

The planets were hers to rule, but who wanted to be trapped by planetary politics all the time? That could be left to others and as long as the results were right, she had no trouble letting previous leaders stay in position. Princess Allura just needed to be broken a little before she would defer to Merla. Nothing too difficult. Her main concern were her people and if they were safe enough, she would do what she was told. As long as she took away her strongest defender. And, seeing him in person, she had to make sure to not betray her plans for the handsome human male. He had an aura about him that screamed that he was a natural born leader, a true warrior. Yes, if she would let things continue without her interference, he would probably prove himself enough to even overcome that silly little rule about the princess having to marry a prince. How Lotor would react to that, she had to grin. He would have a temper tantrum of epic proportions. And perhaps she could contribute to it as well, well she had the means to at least make sure. It would be poetic irony.

"I see you were reasonable," Merla stated.

"We will accept your conditions, but we demand that the people are sent here before we send Commander Keith and Princess Allura," Coran stated.

"No, we will do an exchange at the same time. The two will lay down all their weapons on your side of the field, including their keys to the Voltron lions. Once that is done, they will walk towards me while I at the same time send the whole group of hostages to you. Should any of them try anything, I will have my soldiers fire," Merla declared, "The other pilots of the Voltron Force will stay out of their lions until I have left with my prisoners."

As they didn't have any other choice, Keith and Allura handed their keys to Coran and put their blasters onto the ground. Then they walked towards the middle of the field where the exchange was taking place. The hostages looked at the two with sad faces, but they didn't look as if they had been hurt, which was a relief to Keith and Allura.

"At least she didn't torture them," Allura sighed.

"I know, but we have to be vigilant. We don't know much about her," Keith whispered to Allura.

"You're right, but we will get through this," Allura showed a brave face.

Keith nodded and they reached the group of female robot soldiers.

"Search them for hidden weapons," Merla demanded and soon enough the result was negative, "Very good. Tie their hands up and bring them onto the ship, we are leaving."

Keith and Allura had to let the robots put handcuffs onto their wrists behind their backs before they were led into the ship. The other pilots watched with clenched fists how the door closed behind the last soldiers and the ship took off.

* * *

Keith and Allura found themselves sitting in Merla's command centre, both tied to chairs that were welded to the floor, making it impossible to move from them. Once they had been inside the ship, they had been hit with stunners and lost consciousness. The awakening to their new situation, especially as they had been put into different clothes, ones that clearly didn't have the tracking devices in them anymore, was worrisome. The cuffs enclosed their lower arms and legs, making movement quite hard.

"I have to say, I didn't expect the plan to work this well," Merla grinned at them evilly, letting her eyes roam especially Keith's body and features.

Then another Drule woman entered, wearing a medical coat.

"I have the drug you wanted, Queen Merla, and the tests are prepared," She informed her.

"Very nice. This will be interesting," Queen Merla stated.

"What do you plan?" Keith asked.

"Oh, just some things I am doing regularly. You see, I have noticed some interesting parallels in many planets that I conquered. Those that give me the greatest trouble are normally those where some old and powerful line is working against you. I know from hacking into Zarkon's systems that your father, King Alfor," She looked at Allura, "had some magic to him. The lions are also not your standard robots, but have some sentience to them. But nothing about that explains enough how just five people could oppose the full power that Zarkon threw against your planet, Princess. No, until the space explorers arrived, your planet was incapable of getting back to its feet. Five young men, trained to be pilots for Voltron. But among them, even if they are all brave, which I will freely acknowledge, he stood out constantly. Which is why I am going to have his blood tested against my files of known old lines that have special abilities."

"Old lines?" Allura asked surprised.

"You would be surprised, Princess, how many times a royal family managed to hide their last members among the commoners, which nearly always comes to bite you in the end. It isn't always the case, but too often to not be prepared for. And, should it be the case for him as well, I have some use for it," Merla grinned predatorily.

"My family wasn't royal," Keith stated.

"We will see, Commander, if that's true. You were orphaned at quite a young age after all, before you joined the Alliance. And once there, you aced one test after the other, standing out clearly against all others in your year and the ones above and below you. While your other pilot, Pidge, was found out as a genius early on, which made him enter way earlier than others, even his intelligence doesn't manage to outshine your results. Take the samples you need, Antaria, I think the princess and I will just watch. The view will definitely be worthwhile."

Allura looked between Keith and Merla, not liking at all how predatorily the Queen looked at Keith. She had to watch how that other Drule woman, Antaria, took off Keith's clothes, leaving him in just his boxer shorts. Keith seemed to be able to ignore all this, even if she knew that he hated being exposed like this. The looks Merla gave him were as bad as the ones she regularly got from Lotor. She only hoped that Merla wouldn't do more than look, but with Drules you never knew. And Allura felt quite angry for the way Merla commented on Keith's physique while she couldn't do anything to prevent it.

"I have all the samples I need, Queen Merla, do you want me to proceed now or later?" Antaria asked.

"I think later. We should give our two guests some time for themselves," Merla stated with a grin, before she ran her hand over Keith's shoulders and traced one of the scars he had got, Allura knew it was from that one time Lotor had hit him with his laser sword while he came to her aid, with her slander finger, "I truly hope that the tests are positive, Commander," She whispered into his ear, "We will have a lot of fun then."

She saw the stormy look on Allura's face and just smirked at the clear jealousy the younger woman showed. This was a lot of fun. The princess was already being broken, she just didn't know it yet. She had noticed the liking that the Princess showed the Commander of the Voltron Force, which was why she played this openly. She had fun showing her that she wouldn't hesitate to take something that Allura clearly wanted for herself. And you could manipulate her with his well-being as easily as the other way round.

* * *

Keith let out a shudder when the door was finally closed. He hadn't liked the conclusions he got to from what Merla did.

"Keith, are you okay?" Allura asked concerned.

"As well as possible," Keith answered, "Now I know how creeped out you always are when Lotor goes after you."

"She's horrible. We really need to find a way out," Allura stated.

"The problem is, these cuffs are solid and we would need to get to the computer to open them," Keith stated.

"I know. But I hate how she treats you," Allura admitted, "And I don't know what she intended with her talks about finding old lines."

"I heard rumours, but I didn't know if they were true," Keith admitted.

"What rumours?" Allura asked.

"How the Drule Empire ensures their hold over the number of planets that they control. You know how they invade planets and try to take over control," Keith started.

"Yes, they destroy everything, with the main target always being the royal family, if there is one, to get them out of their way," Allura nodded, having gone through that herself.

"They also attempt to capture at least one member of a royal family to get their own descendants onto the thrones, preferably a weak member to have an easier time. Which is why Lotor is after you so much, you are the last member of the royal family of Arus. Should he manage to capture you and force himself upon you to have his baby, he could legally take over Planet Arus, acting as the guardian of your child until it was old enough to rule as King or Queen, and they wouldn't need to keep you alive anymore then. His obsession for you aside, it is what I heard was standard to mostly legally gain control over other planets. No matter how the child was conceived, it would be the rightful heir to the throne, as long as all others with a claim were dead by then. And raised by the ideas of the Drules, well, you can see how those planets will be ruled," Keith told her.

"That's evil," Allura cried out.

"Yes, it is," Keith agreed.

"Why did you never say anything?" Allura asked.

"To protect you. It was obvious enough what Lotor wanted, there was no need to warn you what would happen, should he succeed. Burdening you with the knowledge that they always did this would only have given you more nightmares," Keith admitted, "And I wanted to spare you that."

She admitted, he had a point there.

"Thank you. I hate how Lotor considers me his property. To think that others suffer as much from this kind of thinking, it makes me sick," Allura commented.

"I know, it makes me sick as well," Keith admitted.

They stayed silent for a while. They could only hope that the others would find them soon.

* * *

Merla looked at the results of the tests with glee.

"Now this is a pleasant surprise. I truly thought Zarkon had got them all," She licked her lips at the ideas she got.

"Well, the files confirmed the deaths of the King and his family down to the last known member. But the DNA test clearly confirms that he's the son of the King's youngest daughter. No known match for the father so far, which could mean that he wasn't a noble, or one of the lesser lines. But, by default, he has a claim to that throne," Antaria.

"Perfect. Another planet that I can add to my collection. While Fanos doesn't have any resources left that are worth harvesting, Zarkon was thorough in plundering the planet, there are probably some accounts left on other planets that I could make use of. And the royal family of Fanos was known for very good-looking members," Merla stated.

"Will you force your will upon him? In front of the Princess?" Antaria asked.

"Yes, I will. It will be delicious seeing her forced into watching how I have my way with him. She likes him very much and not being able to prevent that I basically rape him, with him participating willingly, as he can't resist my mental control, will break her even further," Merla stated, "And in case that doesn't work, we can still put him under drugs."

She loved being evil.

* * *

Allura and Keith were brought out of their silence when the door opened again, Merla standing there in her armour with several papers in her hands.

"Well, I love being right," Merla told them, "Congratulations, Commander Keith Kogane, you are actually descended from a royal line."

"What? That's impossible," Keith declared.

"No, it seems your mother was the youngest daughter of King Rolmon of Fanos. King Zarkon attacked the planet twenty-one years ago, killing the whole royal family, or so it was believed. Your DNA is a match to Princess Hecate of Fanos being your mother. As your father's DNA isn't in any of the databases of royalty that we have, I can only assume that you weren't really a planned child. Happens even in royal families. And Fanos, from what I know about the planet, was quite strict about the royals marrying royals rule. Should the youngest princess really have had an affair with a commoner or something like that, it might have been the case that you were given up for adoption. After all, you would only have been about sixteenth in the inheritance line," Merla commented, "And according to the few files on King Rolmon that I so far managed to look over, he would have done anything to hush up a scandal like a bastard child of his line with all means necessary."

Allura and Keith looked at each other in absolute disbelief.

"Wasn't Fanos plundered by Zarkon?" Allura asked, wanting to win time.

"Yes, very thoroughly. The planet is little more than a husk now. The only value that your Commander might have in terms of power coming from his noble heritage could be old accounts that were off planet," Merla nodded.

Allura saw much more value of this revelation. This would solve her problems with Coran and Nanny being against her loving Keith. For Arus it wasn't important that he could bring in power for some Empire, he had proven how much he was worth so many times already.

"But still, I think I'm going to have some fun," Merla stated, _'Keith you will surrender to my will and sleep with me in front of the Princess.'_

Keith stiffened when he felt something trying to control his mind. He shut his eyes, trying to fight against the command. He didn't want to do that. He didn't want to hurt Allura. She would be incredibly hurt, should it appear that he liked Merla. His military training wasn't any help in this case. But his love for Allura allowed him to get over the command. But perhaps this was also a chance to break out. Merla would have to free him for this after all. He pretended to slump into himself after struggling for two minutes.

"He's strong mentally, but in the end, men always fall to my mental powers," Merla informed Allura with a very pleased smile.

"What did you do to him, Merla?" Allura asked angrily.

"Oh, I just gave him a mental command that he was to follow my wishes and sleep with me," She answered wickedly.

"No, you can't do that!" Allura protested horrified.

"I just did. I don't have anything as stupid as morals hindering me, Princess. And soon you won't have them either. I might even let you have him once I'm done. Nice of me, right? As far as potential mates go, well, he is handsome, but he doesn't have the kind of power that I would want for my future king. I'm quite picky about who I allow to sire my children. So far, I didn't find anybody worthy enough for that honour. As he's under my control already, I will probably just let him empty the accounts and hand their contents to me, before I'll see about his future uses. I had actually hoped for another, more useful, line to be found in his pedigree. But well, you never know what you find before you do the test," Merla stated and with a few pushed buttons, Allura's chair was moved to the side of the room and she was forced to watch how Merla forced Keith's head up and kissed him passionately.

Keith didn't react to the kiss, he had to suppress his reaction of gagging actually. But he played being under her control until she took off his cuffs. After a while, during which she also caressed his naked chest with her hands and let them roam over his body, she seemed to be satisfied that he wasn't giving her any resistance.

"See, Princess, this is my power. He didn't want to do this, he actually fought me quite long, but in the end, those without mental powers don't have a chance to defend themselves against me," Merla said, superiorly, before walking over to the control console to unlock Keith's cuffs, "And even if he could have resisted my mental powers, I have drugs that make all men my willing slaves."

He stayed in his position, as he would only have one chance to get both him and Allura away from here.

"Stand up, Keith, come over to me," Merla purred.

As if following her orders, Keith pretended to be in a daze and walked over to Merla, hating how hurt Allura looked. He didn't want to do this, but he needed to quickly overwhelm the queen before she could trigger an alarm, which would call her soldiers onto them before they could flee. Finally, she put her arms around him, claiming his lips again, and he quickly hit a pressure point on the back of her neck with his fingers, which made her slump down unconscious.

"God, I never want to be in that situation again," Keith brought out, repulsed from the way Merla had groped him and kissed him.

"Keith?" Allura asked hopefully.

"Yes, I'm in control," Keith confirmed, "Just a moment, I'll free you from your cuffs."

He only needed to switch the control panel that Merla had used to Allura's chair and then her cuffs opened. She got up from the chair and flew into his arms.

"I feared she had won," Allura admitted, shaking in his arms, "I was so furious that she would do that to you."

"I felt revolted having to let her believe that she had got control over me," Keith admitted, "I hated it so much."

"Let's get out of here quickly, before anybody comes inside," Allura decided, "We can talk later. I don't blame you for anything. Your quick thinking got us freed after all."

Keith nodded, not feeling like arguing, even if he felt horribly guilty of having to pretend he was under Merla's control. He found his clothes and put them on again, no way was he staying nearly naked while being on an enemy ship. He saw that Allura collected all the print-outs of the test, next to anything else that was inside the room. A good idea, as they might win some valuable information from it. While she was doing that, he put Merla onto the same chair Allura had been on and locked the cuffs again. She wouldn't be able to get out of that without help and he changed the password to the system to win time for their escape. And to add to it, he gagged her to win time until she was found.

"Okay, let's get out of here," Keith said once he was done.

Allura nodded and they went to the door, which opened easily. Seemingly Merla hadn't believed that they could escape from her clutches. They managed to sneak into the hangar where the starfighters and shuttles were kept. They got into the shuttle that had brought them to the star cutter and found that it was keyed to a specific kind of pilot. Female ones.

"Good thing I'm here then, Keith. That's actually a neat trap to keep your prisoners. All her staff is female after all," Allura commented.

"True. Well, then you will have to fly us out of here. The others are hopefully close by to give us cover. As soon as we are out of the ship, I expect somebody to attack us. They won't want Merla's fury directed at them," Keith stated.

Allura agreed with that assessment and started the machines. They shot out of the hangar and not much later some starfighters were launched after them.

"Planet Arus, can you hear me?" Keith called over the com-system.

"Keith, is that you?" He heard Hunk's voice.

"Yes. The princess and I managed to flee, but we are hunted by Merla's starfighters," Keith answered.

"We are close to your position. We'll fight them back," Lance now spoke.

Allura piloted the shuttle as best as possible to not be hit by the lasers and rockets until the three lions of the Voltron Force appeared on their screens. The guys immediately went to work and made short work out of the starfighters, allowing Keith and Allura to direct the shuttle to Planet Arus and safety.

* * *

 **That was it for this time. Until next.**


	3. Acceptance

**Hi everybody, another chapter for Dangerous Enemy is ready. Hope you like it. Happy reading.**

* * *

 **Acceptance**

Keith lay on his back on his bed. He and Allura had both been checked by Dr Gorma before being allowed to rest. Thankfully there hadn't been any signs of drugs in their systems. Merla had clearly only worried about them being able to flee as long as she didn't control them. And had he not acted as if he was controlled, she probably would have got away with her actions. She had told Allura that she also had drugs to make people comply to her wishes, and he didn't doubt that. It was what the rumours said about the practices of the Drule rulers. The revelation of him being from a royal line that was otherwise wiped out had been taken in with huge surprise by Coran and Nanny. But so far, they didn't say anything about it. Allura had given them the results of the DNA test.

He actually didn't know what to do about this news. He didn't feel any different than before. And honestly, the royal line of Fanos sounded like a bunch of jerks. As far as he knew, he had grown up with his parents ever since he was born. There were all kinds of documents for his birth and everything. Was all of that a lie? He couldn't ask his parents anymore, as they were dead, but he had asked Coran to run an independent check to see if the information that Merla had found was actually accurate.

The one thing he had done, once he was cleared by Dr Gorma, was taking a long, hot shower. He wanted to wash the feeling of Merla's hands on his body off as soon as possible. Now he understood how Allura always felt after Lotor went after her. He felt dirty alone by thinking of Merla's actions. And he didn't know how Allura saw him now. She had to watch how he seemingly gave into a woman that evil. While he had done the right thing from a tactical point of view, that didn't help his feelings. The woman he wanted to kiss was Allura, but now he felt he didn't really deserve that anymore. He knew it was totally illogical, but feelings rarely were logical.

He ran a frustrated hand through his wet hair. What should he do?

* * *

Allura lay on her bed, after Nanny had made totally sure that she hadn't been harmed in any way and was warmed up after a wonderful bath. But her thoughts had been in turmoil. She knew how Keith had to feel right now. She went through that every time Lotor got her after all. And, contrary to what the Prince of Doom had managed to do so far, Merla had gone farther with Keith. And she hadn't been able to help him at all. Keith had always come to her rescue, but when he needed her help, she had been useless. He had again needed to save the day, even after being violated like that by the Drule queen.

She was quite sure that Keith would feel unclean, unworthy, helpless. That was what she always felt. And that didn't really suit the proud man. Making a snap decision she got up from her bed. While she might not have been able to help him while they were captives on the ship much, she could help him now, like he had done for her in the past. And perhaps she could get some order into her feelings. The revelation that Keith was a prince, even without a planet to rule, as his had been devastated by Doom before he could even walk and talk, opened a whole lot of new possibilities. She knew what her heart wanted. It had wanted Keith for ages by now. But she had not acted, not wanting to one day go through the pain of having to give him up for her duty to her people. That would have hurt much worse than never being able to be with him in that way.

No matter what, she would now be there for Keith. She quickly slipped on her morning robe and sneaked out of the room, making sure that Nanny wasn't there. She didn't want to deal with a speech about proper behaviour for a princess right now.

* * *

Keith barely noticed when his room's door was opened. Still, his body tensed in reflex.

"Keith, are you awake?" He heard a whispered question of the one person he would always recognise.

"Princess?" He whispered back.

"Just Allura," She countered, making him smile a little.

"What are you doing here?" He asked.

"I couldn't sleep," She answered, "And I wanted to see how you are doing, so I sneaked out without Nanny noticing."

Keith couldn't help but chuckle.

"She better doesn't find it out then," He commented.

"No, I'd be grounded for weeks, but I don't care actually," She stated.

"Are you alright?" He asked concerned.

"Shouldn't I be the one asking you that?" She asked, "You were much more targeted than me this time around."

Keith sighed. She was right with her statement, not that he liked admitting it.

"I'm dealing," Keith said.

"Want to talk about it with me? I definitely understand what you're going through," She offered.

"Yes, you are probably the one to understand best how it feels," Keith admitted, not having the state of mind to keep things bottled up.

"I don't blame you for anything you did. You got us out of there," She firmly repeated her earlier statement.

"I still feel dirty, Allura. I hate that I went along with her kissing me. That I didn't put up visible resistance to her touches. I felt horrible when she did those things to my body. And I couldn't retreat into my mind, like I would normally have done in that situation, as I needed to think clearly to find a way out of the situation before she could go farther than she already did. And showering didn't really help," He groaned.

"It never does. Whenever Lotor looks at me as if I'm just a price he can win, a conquest, I want to shut myself away and scrub the dirtiness that his looks give me off. I have nightmares about possible things he could do to me. The information that we got over time, especially from how he keeps female prisoners as harem girls for his sick pleasure terrifies me," She admitted.

Keith sat up and held out his hand to her. She quickly went over to him and let him draw her into a firm embrace. He felt wonderful, holding the woman he loved so much in his arms, even if the reason was one he would have wanted to spare her. But he knew she needed to talk about it with somebody, just like he needed to talk, but few would understand him.

"I just want to be free again," Allura told him, "To have peace on Arus. And to be allowed to be with you. You are the only man I ever felt this safe with."

Keith's heart did a little jump. He wanted that as well.

"I have wanted it for a long time, Allura," Keith finally admitted, "But I didn't believe it could be possible. Not to mention that with Lotor's obsession with you, it would have painted huge targets onto both of our backs, should he ever have found out what I felt. And until Merla did that test, well, I wouldn't have been allowed to love you. You would have been forced to marry a prince."

Allura looked deeply into his eyes and he knew he was totally lost.

"I love you, Keith. And that obstacle doesn't exist anymore. In some way, I have to thank Merla. Even if I still want to wring her neck and shoot her with Blue Lion," She stated.

"Would definitely be worth watching how you shoot her," Keith chuckled, "I love you too."

He leaned forward to finally get the kiss he wanted to have for so long and was somewhat surprised when Allura took the initiative and pulled him towards her before he could reach her. He met her lips in a soft, but passionate kiss. One that was so much better than the one Merla forced him into. Merla's kiss had felt as if he was kissing an icy statue, Allura's kiss felt warm and it ignited a fire in him, which until then had only been allowed to be a soft glow. Right then he decided that he wouldn't hold back anymore. While he didn't believe that being born royal made anybody a better person, he had been lucky enough to be given a gift that allowed him to be together with the woman he loved. And even Nanny couldn't do anything about it anymore.

He pulled Allura tightly against himself and she ended sitting in his lap to have better access to him. Her hands were wandering, wanting to make him forget all those touches from Merla, the ones he felt dirty about. Wanting to purge the taint he felt she had left on him, the taint she always felt Lotor left on her. And it felt wonderful how he reciprocated with his own touches, his kisses that travelled from her lips to her neck, making her moan in pleasure.

They didn't really know how much time passed while they were giving into their desires. When they finally took a moment to breathe, Keith was shirtless and both had very much swollen lips.

"We need to stop," Keith told her, "This is too fast, no matter how much I want to continue."

"I just want you, Keith. I waited for so long," Allura told him.

"Me too. And we will have the time to finally do what our hearts tell us. But I won't risk ruining your reputation because I couldn't control myself. We have the chance to make this into a wonderful future for us, but for it to work, I need to appear as if I follow all those pesky rules Nanny and Coran like to go on about," Keith told her.

"Yes. They would give us trouble if they thought we didn't behave properly. It's just so hard," Allura sighed, "But I don't want to give you up and with that test giving you a legitimate claim, we can convince them that it will be for the good of Arus. I already know that you are the only one that's right for me." She smiled at him tenderly.

"I feel the same for you. You complete me in a way I never felt before, Allura. We can still sneak some private time in, like tonight. But until I have managed to officially solidify my position, we have to put on a show in public. What happens in private just concerns us," Keith stated, "And we need to make sure that any retaliation from Lotor doesn't cost the people. He will rage, once we go public."

"That's true. Stupid obsessed bastard," Allura growled.

They stayed together for some more time, talking, kissing and making plans. No matter what, they would fight for their love.

* * *

Merla sat opposite of King Zarkon, telling him how the plan had failed.

"So again Commander Keith thwarted a good plan," Zarkon commented.

"Indeed. And I was working the Princess up into being easier to control quite well. He definitely is her weak point. I don't have that much use for him, even if I could prove my theory about him being from one of those old lines with power. Fanos just had a connection with the body. Meaning, they could drive themselves way further than normal humans, should they decide to train their bodies properly. A useful trait, but it doesn't put them above a similarly trained Drule. It just brings them much closer than normal humans would get. It certainly explains how he can match Prince Lotor in combat," Merla pointed out.

"Certainly true. So, how would you suggest we proceed, after the first attempt didn't work out?" Zarkon asked.

"The attacks need to be layered and come from different, unexpected directions. Trickery will work well, as does psychologic warfare. Any kind of plan will need to specifically target Keith primarily. He needs to be distracted enough so that we have a shot at preventing that Voltron can be formed. We should also include shots at taking out one of the other pilots from time to time, simply to not become predictable. But he needs to be kept too busy to really see the final plan in the end. It would work best if we could hit him unexpectedly with one of Haggar's spells to weaken him. I liked the idea with the death-like sleep, but the target was the wrong one. It was easy to suspect foul play, as they could deduct easily that Prince Lotor wouldn't want Princess Allura dead," Merla reminded Zarkon.

"Yes, a curse that took the Commander into a world of nightmares would be a nice touch," Zarkon grinned evilly, "I will talk to the witch to see what she can come up with."

Merla nodded and they continued planning the demise of the Voltron Force, but especially the Commander.

* * *

Allura and Keith sat opposite Nanny and Coran. They had asked the two older ones for a meeting to discuss some things. It had by now been two months since the event with Merla and their relationship had grown and they were getting pretty frustrated at keeping things secret. Not to mention that they were by now sure that they wouldn't ever look at anybody else for a partner. They wanted to openly show their relationship, but that would only be possible under certain circumstances. Thus, they had decided to just openly bring the topic up. Meeting in secret and having time for themselves wasn't that easy and they honestly weren't ashamed of being together. Coran seemed somewhat resigned and Nanny suspicious.

"Alright, I guess we just have to come directly to the point, anything else is just beating around the bush. What exactly would we have to do to not have anybody protest a relationship between me and Keith?" Allura asked.

"I knew that this was coming," Coran sighed, "Ever since you brought those printouts of the DNA test back, Princess."

"I guess I'm not surprised. How long has this been going on?" Nanny asked.

"We only got together the day we escaped from Merla," Keith admitted, "But I have loved Princess Allura much longer."

"The same is true for me," Allura added, "I fell for Keith shortly after he and the team arrived here on Arus."

"At least you didn't do anything that could have tarnished her reputation in public. We will have to work this very carefully," Coran said, "You didn't go too far, did you?"

His stern look made the two younger ones shake their heads.

"Nothing beyond kissing," Allura admitted, blushing prettily.

"That's something at least," Nanny commented, "Well, the normal rules for courtship between royals will have to be amended, given that you aren't really trained in them, Commander. While we can now point out that you are of royal heritage, thanks to that DNA test, which will shut up the busybodies among the nobles that simply can't stop themselves from putting their noses where they don't belong, many will still grouch about it, as they will have had hopes of getting the Princess to marry one of their sons around her age. We have to be careful that they don't play up the fact that you aren't a legitimate son of Princess Hecate though. But as nobody knows much about the circumstances, that should be possible. I'm actually very glad that this happened. Now I don't have to worry anymore that the prince she would have to marry would just treat her like a prize or an obligation to his line."

Allura and Keith stared at Nanny in disbelief.

"What? I'm a woman that has eyes. I have known that you two were getting closer all the time. It was a main reason for my frustrations. I had to maintain propriety to protect the royal house of Arus, no matter what my personal opinions were. I may act strict, as I have to make sure that everything is proper, but in that regard, you two behaved much better than I ever expected you to be capable of. I want what's best for you Allura. I raised you since you were a baby. I wished that you could fall in love with a nice prince, but especially I wanted you to find love after the horrible events that took your parents from you. You deserved it so much.

"But I also got a good impression of the princes that vied for your hand. None of them ever showed that he was interested in you as a person. And that would have destroyed you. And Keith has more than proven that he would do anything to keep you safe and happy," Nanny pointed out, "The main problem was that it couldn't be, as there are ways that those busybodies could have used to get rid of him, should you have acted on your feelings carelessly. There have been cases of false accusations of treason in the past, when one noble or the other decided to make a play for power in concerns of the royal family. You aren't by far the first royal to fall in love with a supposed commoner."

"Thank you, Nanny," Allura exclaimed and went over to hug the older woman, which she returned.

"I'm really happy for you, Princess," Nanny repeated her earlier words.

Allura sat back down next to Keith, taking his hand, the two exchanging a happy smile. Nanny and Coran could only thank the stars that the now very obviously shown love between them would have a chance to be allowed.

"Well, back to your initial question. You will have to slowly get the public used to you being a couple. That shouldn't be too difficult. Just some of the normal outings that the Princess goes to will have to be done in your company, Keith, with a proper PR strategy. Thankfully, it won't be very hard, as the members of the Voltron Force have already managed to win the hearts of the people of Arus. The one problem I can see is Prince Lotor having a temper tantrum if you showed your relationship too openly," Coran stated.

"That's true. But perhaps we can just leave the obvious parts of them being together for inside the castle. We can let the staff know that Keith and Princess Allura have entered an official and sanctioned courtship. They will also be told that the two won't be too open about it in public, simply for security reasons, and they all know that Prince Lotor is a constant problem already," Nanny pointed out, "Rumours have ways to spread and as long as we act as if this was all perfectly okay and normal, the people would follow our example. As long as nobody openly challenges it, we can get away with a lot of things. Of course, Keith will need to catch up on some important things, like the planetary history and the laws of the planet."

"I'm actually fully up to date on the laws, Nanny," Keith told them, which made Nanny look at him in surprise, "I have the habit to always want to know with which laws I'm dealing, next to the general ones set by the Galactic Alliance. It's simply best to not be surprised by something if you are on long-term assignments. While you normally get some leeway if you get in conflict with some uncommon laws, as long as you follow the general GA ones, as the commander of the team, I felt it was my duty to not get into situations like that."

"That's a great start," Coran stated happily, "How about the history?"

"Only some parts and more the recent events, as I wanted to know how Zarkon could manage to overrun the planet like he did before Voltron returned," Keith answered.

"I can help you with that," Allura offered.

"I'll gladly take you up on that," Keith smiled at her.

"It would probably be a good idea to just let you join the lessons the Princess has on her royal duties. Now to things that you need to adhere to, if you want this to be fully above reproach, even if it might be embarrassing to talk about them. No sex before you are engaged and the official engagement has been announced. That's really important," Coran told them, making them both blush heavily.

"Coran is right. No suitor would be allowed to bed the princess before that time. Normally, waiting until the wedding night would be better, but that point in time has to absolutely be kept. And there can't be any pregnancy before you are married," Nanny pointed out.

"I don't feel ready for children yet anyway, Nanny. Not with how the planet isn't free of the attacks of Doom yet," Allura brought out after a while.

"Still, once you are married, people will expect you to give the planet an heir. And that also means that, once you are pregnant, you will have to look into a replacement pilot for the Blue Lion. Keith can probably get away with flying Black Lion for a while longer, but he also needs to train a substitute for the times he's busy with royal duties. If you go through with this, which I actually don't doubt in the least, he will rule Arus at your side as king, as soon as you two are married. And that includes travelling to meet other planetary rulers," Coran explained, "You won't always be able to get out of meetings in case of attacks, and you could also be too far away."

"You're right, I need to take that into consideration, Coran," Keith agreed, "I think I can train Lance up to be my substitute in case I can't pilot Black Lion. But in case both Allura and I can't fly with the Voltron Force, we would need two more pilots to have the Voltron Force fully ready for duty. After all, while Sven can occasionally come and help out, he now lives on Pollux with Princess Romelle."

"The question is where will we get the pilots?" Allura asked.

"The easiest way would be asking the Alliance for backup. When we were put together as a team, there were also other candidates that just didn't make the cut. It would be good if the replacements were also good at areas that we don't cover fully right now. I need to inform my superiors as well about the change in my relationship to Allura. There are certain rules of the military that I need to take into consideration," Keith told them.

"I could imagine that it would be problematic if you got into a relationship with a subordinate or a person you are meant to protect," Nanny mentioned.

"Thankfully those rules aren't overly strict, as long as you don't do anything to hurt your own reputation or the one of the person you get involved with. Officers have to keep to a certain code of conduct in public, but as long as you don't get into things like being caught causing bar brawls or sleeping around without restraint, you can have normal relationships, as long as your duties don't suffer. With the different species that make up the Alliance, some older, stricter rules were done away with and a lowest common denominator was found that all planets could live with for the military. I know for a fact that a friend of mine, Jeff, who commands the air team of the vehicle Voltron unit, is in a relationship with a woman on his team," Keith stated.

"Isn't that the team with Pidge's twin brother?" Allura asked and Keith nodded.

"What would you need to do to still fulfil your obligations as an officer to the Alliance?" Nanny asked.

"Well, firstly I need to ask for a permanent transfer to Arus, which won't be a problem at all. The Alliance will ask that we set up a proper base with presence of more Alliance personnel, but that will only be to the advantage of Arus and would have happened sometime in the future anyway, once the constant danger of the base becoming a target was lower. I guess we might also be asked if we would take on some refugees from other planets that were attacked by Zarkon," Keith pondered.

"That wouldn't be a problem at all, once we have had more success and time for the rebuilding of the planet. There are many areas where refugees could settle down," Allura nodded.

"Then, once our wedding is close, they will turn my status as commander of the team over to Lance, simply to make sure that my new priorities to the planet don't interfere with my military duties. But, as the lions belong to Planet Arus, I can still be the official commander of the Voltron Force in battle situations. It will just be the shift of my rank of commander for daily needs of the team going to Lance, as he is the next higher ranked officer," Keith explained.

"So, kind of how the Princess is treated right now. Officially she can order you to do things, but she accepts that you are in charge of the team normally," Coran nodded along.

Allura was higher ranked in the chain of command than Keith, being the Princess of Planet Arus, outside of flying the lions. For that they had an agreement that Keith, having the greater experience, not to mention the full training of the academy, was the one in charge.

"Do you have any kind of plans for a schedule how long you can wait until you can't control yourselves anymore?" Nanny asked bluntly, making both blush again.

"It's really hard," Allura finally admitted, "I want him so much."

Keith could only nod.

"So, we better compress any kind of needed training as much as possible and accept some holes in Keith's knowledge in non-essential areas, which can be filled afterwards. And there aren't really rules how long an engagement can last. We just need to give other parties that need to be informed enough time to get their own changes filed and precautions taken. I think we can, if you put in a lot of work on at least catching up onto the most basic parts of diplomacy and history, have the official announcement in one month," Coran calculated.

"Not optimal, but better than much longer," Keith sighed in resignation.

"Why is there that rule anyway?" Allura grouched, "I mean, why should others care about that aspect of our relationship? It should only concern us. And even more as we are serious about it and want to legalise everything."

"It's just the way it is. Be happy that the most serious obstacle got cleared after Merla did that test. While it may have been for her own goals, it at least allowed you to get this far without having to jump through ridiculously many hoops to at least have a chance to marry," Nanny pointed out.

"Not that we need to do it anymore, but what kind of hoops?" Keith asked, "I mean, I only hesitated as long as I did because I thought that I didn't have any chance at all to ever be allowed to love her and that I would be forced to give her up, should we be together and she have to marry for political reasons."

"There is one way for the Princess or Prince of Arus to marry a non-royal that was set down in our laws ages ago, but which most nobles don't like. It's one of the really obscure laws and has only been used once, and that was about three hundred years ago. A non-noble suitor for the royal heir of Arus can be accepted if one of two conditions are met. The first is official permission of the ruling king or queen of the planet. Should the king or queen deem the suitor worthy, he or she can grant an exception to the law, which is mainly done by giving the suitor a noble title, getting around the problem fully.

"The second one comes into play if there isn't a king or queen. The suitor can be accepted if he or she proves beyond any doubt that he or she is worthy of the position. It involves a set of five tests, which are incredibly difficult to pass. And the suitor has to pass them all to be accepted. While it would have been easy for you to pass the first two, the other three would have needed years of preparation probably," Coran stated, "The tests are of courage, dedication to the planet and its people, knowledge of traditions, laws and history, impeccable diplomatic abilities and lastly, the suitor has to win the approval of the clear majority of the population."

"Well, Keith would probably have easily passed the tests of courage and dedication to the planet and its people. The approval of the majority of the people would have come with time, no doubt about that. His approval ratings in general are already good and with some more work, the people would have easily supported him becoming their new king to marry their princess," Nanny continued, "But the traditions, laws and history as well as the diplomacy tests would have demanded that he passed them with at least ninety percent correct answers and with the sheer amount of facts included, well, even I don't know if I could pass either one, and I was trained in these areas to teach the children of the royal family. And those tests are set up by the nobles, meaning they could very well hide traps and obstacles in there, if they truly want to prevent a marriage, which is why it so far was only done once."

Keith and Allura nodded, glad that Keith wouldn't have to go that way, even if both also knew that he wouldn't have hesitated to try, had he just known about it.


	4. Sneakiness

**Sneakiness**

During the time they were waiting to make the engagement official, Nanny went about preparing the staff of the Castle of Lions for the impeding change in very pragmatic and sneaky ways. The best way to ensure that the right people knew was to have the castle gossip fed with just enough facts and clues to come to the right conclusions. Displaying a very cheery and happy behaviour while doing her duties was the first part. Coran was the one in charge of Keith and Allura's studies into the things a king absolutely needed to know, so that part was covered. The switch needed to be done gradually though, at least in the perception of the people working inside the castle. They couldn't have it be known too early on after all, and she didn't want any of the nobles that might try to interfere plotting if she could prevent it. They had no rights to do so, but she knew their modus operandi too well to risk anything before nothing could be changed anymore.

And the maids, she knew that very well, as she had often needed to reprimand them about getting their jobs done in time, were the biggest gossips there were. And using gossip, well, she had much experience in that already, though so far it had been for other purposes. Like sending subtle warnings that she was onto certain things. Thus, she started her work with them.

"Alina, Jennifer and Primrose, I need to have an inventory of the silk linens that we have for the large sized beds inside the caste," Nanny told the three.

"All the linens?" Jennifer asked.

"Yes, we will need them soon and I want to be absolutely sure that everything is ready. I don't know how much time we have when the time comes, but right now we can do this without it interrupting the normal schedules. Oh, I'm so happy," Nanny gushed.

"Did something really good happen, Nanny?" Alina asked.

"Oh yes, but I can't tell you yet. Just be prepared for some really exciting news. And for once they are the really good kind. I'm going to have so much work to do. Oh, I need to see about the kitchen being ready. Get the inventory done, girls, and then do your normal duties for the day," Nanny instructed them and then walked off, a small grin playing around her lips. The seed was planted.

"What do you think that was about?" Primrose asked, "I don't think I have seen Nanny this happy ever before. Well, outside of when we found out that the Princess didn't really die, but that it was just a mean trick."

"It certainly is strange," Alina nodded along, while the three moved towards the storage for the good linens, "I would bet that it has something to do with the Princess. And something Nanny has waited for a long time for."

"Well, the silk linens are only used for nobility. We don't use them for the normal beds, as they are simply too expensive and the money can be used better in our current situation. And the large ones are only used in very few rooms. With the Princess's room, we change them once a week. Why would we need a full inventory for that? No other room currently has silk linens, not to mention a big enough bed," Jennifer pointed out.

"It could be possible that a ball of some kind was planned. I know that back when King Alfor was still alive, such balls happened at least once a year and the guests would of course get the best kind of service inside the castle," Primrose pointed out.

"Might be. Perhaps the princess has a new suitor? I mean, Nanny always went on about how she wished that Princess Allura married some nice Prince and became Queen of Arus," Alina suggested.

"I doubt that she would marry any prince she doesn't know. If some prince was wanting to court her, it wouldn't cause this kind of excitement. The last two times that Princess Allura had a prince courting her for a short time, Nanny may have been excited, but never this happy. She was hopeful that the prince met the expectations of the princess, but we all know it never happened, as the princes, excuse my blunt words, were jerks that didn't deserve her at all," Jennifer commented.

"Too true. They may have looked good, but they didn't care for her as a person. And that first fake one was even a spy sneaked in by the witch Haggar. Coran and Nanny have become much more careful about allowing just any suitor close to the princess. Not to mention the background scans Commander Keith always puts any kind of suitor through that even wants to meet the princess," Alina giggled.

"Oh yes, do you remember the stink that pompous idiot Prince Kane caused when Commander Keith refused to let his delegation enter the castle?" Primrose remembered fondly.

"Well, after the attempt to rape another woman on Planet Cios during a ball he had every right to ban Prince Kane from even coming close to the Princess," Alina declared.

"Very true. No matter how that prince threatened the commander, he stood his ground and tore the bastard apart verbally, all while the other male members of the Voltron Force covered his back. And Coran sent an official complaint to the Alliance about the prince and the stance of Planet Arus towards letting rapists get away without punishment," Jennifer summed it up.

"We are lucky that our princess has such a strong protector in the commander. I actually always thought that the two would make a dream couple," Alina mentioned.

"He would need to be a prince to be allowed to marry the princess. Even if I agree with your assessment," Jennifer nodded, "At least we would know that he would treat her like she deserves to be treated."

They reached the storage for the linens and set to work, Alina writing down the number of each kind of linens, while they were already searching for the special silk linens they could as well count the others as well and make sure that there was a simple and logical system to the storage room. They knew too well that Nanny would ask for this later anyway, and it would mean one job less to do.

"Well, we have about twenty-five silk linens for the large beds that can be used right now. A good thing we also checked for the state of all linens, as it seems that some of the older ones broke," Primrose commented.

"Yes. We can give Nanny the full list of things that need replacements and what can be used immediately. Though I really wonder why we would need these ones in large numbers. Even during a ball, we would at most need fifty for all guest rooms. The guests would come one day, then the ball would be held and the next day they would leave again," Jennifer said.

"And the beds normally are single ones in the rooms, with exception for six rooms, which are for married couples that come for visits. Anybody else has to accept that they have normal sized beds," Alina pointed out.

"I guess we will find out soon enough. Perhaps one of the others has an idea what this could be about," Primrose suggested.

The other two nodded and they set out to find Nanny to give her the list with all information.

They found the governess of the Princess talking to some maids that were tasked with cleaning the windows.

"That's it girls. The windows must gleam like never before. Oh, are you three done?" She turned when she spotted them.

"Yes, Nanny. We did a full inventory of all linens and have written down how many of each are ready to be used, as well as the number of ones that weren't in useable condition anymore. We put those into the side room to see what could be done with the useable parts of the material," Alina handed over the list.

"That's more than I asked for, girls, it's wonderful. This will be a great help when it happens," Nanny praised them.

"What is going to happen, Nanny? It seems to be big, if you have the extreme cleaning done. We never before did this," Primrose asked.

"Oh, I can't tell you yet, but it's very exciting. Don't worry, we will inform you all in time. Right now, last preparations for the big event are performed. Oh, and if you could kindly send Grace and Mary to me, I need them in an hour," Nanny asked them.

"Sure, we can do that," Jennifer nodded.

Nanny nodded with a big smile and walked away.

"She's behaving as if the Princess is getting engaged," Regina, one of the ones cleaning the windows commented.

"Well, she asked us to do an inventory of the big silk linens," Alina told her.

"It would match, but to whom? I mean, there are only a limited number of rooms inside the castle that have beds that size and fewer that we would need the silk linens for. But if she is preparing for an official engagement announcement, well, you all know that from that time on the princess would be allowed to sleep with her fiancé, going by the laws," Alice, the other maid cleaning windows threw into the conversation.

They all looked at each other. Could that really be true? The signs fit. Well, it was certainly going to be the hottest topic inside the castle.

* * *

The next piece of the puzzle appeared when Mary and Grace returned from the meeting with Nanny later that day.

"You won't believe what kind of task Mary and I just got," Grace told the assembled maids, which had sat down together in the kitchen that the employees at the castle used.

"Don't let us wait," Eleanor demanded.

"She wants to have all the guest rooms that are needed for a royal ball ready for use in one month," Grace informed the others.

"Wow, a ball. Any kind of occasion that we need to know of?" Rayne asked.

"Not sure yet, but I have the impression that it's a really big event," Mary stated.

"Yes, and the strange thing is, she also is very secretive about a task that would be given to us very soon as well, which she doesn't want to be spread. We had to promise her that we wouldn't tell anybody without her explicit approval," Grace continued.

"That really sounds like a big event. Very big. A normal ball never caused her to go into this kind of overdrive. I think the suspicions about the princess getting engaged might be true. She is far too happy for it being something below that level," Alina pointed out.

"But who could be the possible spouse? I just met the Voltron Force when they returned from their afternoon practice and there was no tension in Commander Keith, which always happens if we have guests of that kind. I think the only kind of guests he doesn't go crazy about in his security measures are Princess Romelle and Prince Bandor of Pollux," Eleanor mentioned.

"Well, that's because Sven is with them on Pollux and Commander Keith trusts him implicitly to have impeccable scans around Princess Romelle. He was part of the Voltron Force in the beginning after all," Ines threw into the conversation.

"We will have to continue collecting information. But this would be really big. I mean, if the princess was married, or at least engaged, then Prince Lotor wouldn't have any reason to chase her anymore. He can't expect her to marry him, if she's already married," Anna pondered.

"It would be a risk if he found out," Grace warned, "We should make sure that the speculations don't leave the castle before the official announcement is made. He would attack immediately if he even thought somebody was impeaching into 'his territory'."

The maids looked at each other and then nodded. They would only discuss this inside the safety of the castle's walls.

* * *

For the next few days speculations about a possible engagement of the Princess travelled through all employees of the castle. The soldiers talked, the maids talked, the craftsmen joined in and the main question, after people heard all the clues that had led to the conclusion, was just who might be the possible fiancé. A week passed and more and more of the castle was cleaned up to the highest degree, more supplies for a huge feast ordered and repairs on parts of the castle that had so far been pushed back out of lesser priority were ordered done. The next huge event that surprised the workforce of the castle was when they were told that a ship with some high-ranking Alliance officers would be arriving in two days' time. Supposedly a general and a major would be arriving with their teams to talk about an Alliance base on Planet Arus.

It certainly excited many women inside the castle when they saw the male members of the Voltron Force wearing their official Alliance uniforms. But there was one symbol on the Commander's uniform that nobody could match to any of the others on the uniforms on the other three males. The riddle was discussed again and one worker that was good at drawing gave the others a sketch of it to ask somebody that had been around the military for a longer time than they did. And honestly, most weren't used to seeing the Voltron Force in any other uniform than the royal one of Arus, which they wore to please the princess ever since they had arrived on the planet.

When the one with the knowledge of symbols saw it, he was honestly surprised.

"Well, damn, I didn't think I would ever see that symbol again. I thought it was lost for good," He mumbled.

"Don't let us wait, what does the symbol mean?" Hugh, the one that had drawn the sketch, asked.

"It's a symbol from Fanos. It just doesn't make any sense. I know for a fact that the whole group of people that would have had any right to wear it was killed off by Zarkon, when he conquered the planet. It was over twenty years ago. My family lived on Fanos, you see, and all my older brothers served in the military there. The symbol was worn by the highest rank of military commanders, which were basically all the peerage of Fanos. I don't think any non-noble was ever allowed into those ranks. And you said Commander Keith Kogane wears it on his left shoulder?" Isaac asked.

"Yes, Isaac. We were surprised, as none of the other three have similar symbols. I mean, I know that Pidge has his dual planetary one, as Princess Allura made him an honourable citizen of Arus after Balto was destroyed by Doom, but the other two just have the symbols of their home planets. And I'm fairly sure that the last time they wore the Alliance uniforms, Commander Keith didn't have that symbol," Jennifer the maid commented.

"If this is that symbol, it is curious why the commander would wear it. I mean, even if he was from Fanos, and as far as I know, he was born on Earth, he definitely could never have been part of their military. He's too young," Hugh pointed out.

"True, he's twenty-three years old now," Primrose nodded, "He would have been a toddler when the planet was destroyed."

"I don't know if there was another meaning to it. I only ever saw it in that function," Isaac shrugged.

"Any idea why they sent a general in person? I mean, normally, just to set up a base, they could have used a long-distance call for the general agreement and sent a lower-ranking officer that would set it up," Alina asked.

"No idea. But normally somebody of the rank of commander would have been enough for that. Maybe this was just convenient and the general had some business that could be combined with the visit here to discuss the base and they didn't want to send another officer, while being busy with fights against people like Zarkon," Hugh suggested.

"Could very well be true," Isaac agreed.

* * *

Keith, Allura and Coran sat in the office with General Walters and Major Hopkins.

"Well, we have got your transfer papers to allow your switch in status to commence, Commander Kogane. And I personally want to congratulate you and your very charming bride to be," General Walters told them.

"Thank you, sir," Keith replied, "I'm very happy that circumstances allowed this to happen."

"Me too," Allura added, "And I'm very grateful that the Alliance assists us this much."

Keith and Allura exchanged a very fond smile with each other.

"We also looked into the accounts that the Galactic Alliance held from the time Fanos was still around. Most of the assets could be transferred to heirs, but the accounts of the royal family were frozen, as nobody could access them until a period of fifty years had passed. The standard rule for planets that are lost to invaders, simply because it is much too common that the enemy is very thorough in killing off all members of the family that can pose a threat to their new claim. And nearly nobody can keep an eye on all side branches of those noble families. A distant cousin could, after proving a claim, demand those funds," Major Hopkins informed them, "As you have been proven to be the grandson of the last king by a DNA test, Commander, you will be able to access those funds. It's not overly much, compared to the planets that have huge external accounts, thanks to being blessed with valuable export goods, but it is nothing to scoff at."

He handed a file over to Keith, who immediately let Allura look into it as well.

"That will come in handy for the rebuilding of Arus," Keith said happily, "That's about the amount we were talking about to install the higher-grade security systems to have better warnings about new attacks from Doom. Not to mention that you can realise the school project you wanted to start, Allura."

"You are willing to just invest that money into this planet?" Major Hopkins asked surprised.

"Arus is my new home and I want the people here to be safe and happy. They have suffered too much already, thanks to Zarkon's terror. I never had much money, even if I got by well with what I earned as a soldier for the Alliance. Money on an account doesn't do anything good. Money that is invested into the betterment of people, to allow themselves to make a good life for themselves, that's money that does good things," Keith stated.

"Ha, I see you are already thinking the way a king needs to think, Keith," General Walters laughed, breaking the formerly strict address of Keith, "You are right of course. But you still should make sure to keep some reserves to have money for emergencies."

"Don't worry, Coran makes sure of that," Keith nodded.

The two officers looked at Coran.

"I have been the royal advisor for many years now, and, as King Alfor was too busy with taking measures to protect the planet, similar to what Keith has done ever since he arrived here, other duties that were normally for the king to perform were delegated to others that were trusted by the ruler of the planet. Managing the general finances falls into that category and the Princess has asked me to continue with it until she asks otherwise," Coran explained.

"Keith and I will be busy enough with all other kinds of things, especially as Doom and King Zarkon haven't been defeated yet. Until that time, there simply are other priorities to managing every aspect of being king and queen. We are still part of the Voltron Force, even if we want to have some backup pilots to replace us, should our other duties keep us from flying with the lions in a battle situation," Allura added.

"Yes, in that regard, we have brought two recent graduates from the academy. Private Tano and Sergeant Ohara have passed their tests a year ago and have collected some experience working alongside the Voltron Vehicle Force. Private Tano has advanced training in communication systems while Sergeant Ohara is a fully trained field medic. He also studies in online courses to gain a full medical licence," Major Hopkins told them.

"That's very useful. We can always use more trained medical experts, even if Dr Gorma is very good at what he does," Allura commented.

"I would have to see how they work as pilots to really know which way to continue their training," Keith commented.

"They are aware of that. They see this transfer as a great chance to get some real flying experience in, as there won't be any places opening up in the vehicle force in the foreseeable future. How far are you with training up Lieutenant McClain as your substitute, Commander?" Major Hopkirk asked.

"I've so far mainly put him through some general instruction on how to fly Black Lion compared to his red one. I was too busy for more than that, and it wasn't top priority, as he has the basic training needed already down. We plan on running some drills with switched positions tomorrow," Keith answered.

"That would work well with the general schedule you told us about. I suggest placing Sergeant Ohara into the medical wing as an assistant to your Dr Gorma, with the additional lessons taking place whenever you have the time for them. And Private Tano with whoever has the most contact with the communication systems to get familiar with them," General Walters suggested.

"That would be Pidge, I guess," Keith nodded.

"Well, she would certainly profit from his abilities with computers. The boy is a certified genius after all," Major Hopkins nodded, "Now another topic, the Alliance Command had finally got around to acting on your exceptional performance on this mission and I'm going to have to perform some promotions."

"That's great, the boys certainly deserve some kind of acknowledgement after three years of saving Planet Arus and helping others that needed support to be free from Zarkon," Allura commented.

"Well, it was a bit difficult to get things done with the distance between Planet Arus and Galaxy Garrison on Earth. Basically, we are promoting Lieutenant Lance McClain to the rank of Captain, Sergeants Darrell Stoker and Tsuyoshi Garrett are promoted to Lieutenant and, even if you are going to become King of Arus, Keith, you get promoted to Colonel compared to your previous rank of Commander," General Walters informed them.

"Thank you, General, this means a lot to me and the others," Keith said with a smile.

"Nothing more than you deserve. How far are you in terms of informing the staff of the upcoming engagement? We didn't let anybody outside of the direct command involved into the Voltron Force department know about it, like you requested in the coded message," Walters wanted to know.

"Nanny is busy strewing veiled hints. The castle gossip, according to Lance, is discussing a possible engagement already, just based on a number of jobs Nanny delegated that aren't the normal type here at the Castle of Lions," Allura giggled, "Not to mention that she freaks some maids out with her extremely cheery behaviour."

"I also have the communication out of the castle closely watched. Pidge created a program for us to make sure that only permitted calls go out. Nothing will get out before we want it to happen. But the gossiping without any solid base in this case only helps us. Though Lance also says that nobody caught onto the fact that I'm the one being engaged to her yet," Keith added.

"I don't doubt that this rumour will be added very soon. After all, you aren't in, what did Hunk call it again, ah yes, Alpha Lion Security Mode, this time around. Everybody has noticed how serious you always took your job to protect Princess Allura, even from threats that Nanny and I just didn't see, or were too naïve to see. I don't know if anybody will recognise or even notice the crest of the Fanos royal line that was added to your official Alliance uniform, but they will wonder why you aren't analysing the background of a possible fiancé," Coran commented.

Keith scratched the side of his cheek a bit in slight embarrassment. Well, he wouldn't ever apologise for being thorough in protecting the princess from attack via possible suitors for her, not after the mess that nearly cost them her and Blue Lion, had King Alfor's spirit not interfered. He had sworn after that event to not overlook anything when it came to her. And his drive had only become stronger, the more he fell in love with her. While he had thought that he could never have her, he loved her too much that the only thing he could do was ensuring that nobody that would hurt her could even get close to her. It was still like a dream to him that he actually could marry Allura.

The Voltron Force was part of the currently very small group that actually knew what was going on. They were all extremely happy that Keith and Allura would be marrying sometime in the not too far away future, even if, for the moment, they would be keeping it to an official engagement. All others would be told little by little, with the staff getting the official memo a week before the engagement ball would take place. The ball would until then be treated like a normal ball to allow a suitor the attempt to court the princess, like it had happened in the past. This should give the ball itself enough security to not expect a response from Lotor. He never really reacted to those balls, seemingly he knew too well that Allura didn't like the idea of having to marry anybody while her planet was still at war with Planet Doom.

* * *

Lance and Hunk had just come back from their recent patrol, Lance taking Black Lion for the patrol, simply to get some practice in piloting the largest of the Voltron lions, in case Keith couldn't do his normal job. General Walters had performed a small promotion ceremony for all Voltron members that were members of the official military of the Alliance, and they had had a nice party to celebrate their new ranks. While it wasn't the most important part for them, it was still a good feeling that their work was being acknowledged and their sacrifices for Arus seen by the higher ups. And the higher rank came with more salary as well. It certainly would help with future career prospects, even if the consensus among them was that they wanted to stay on Arus as the Voltron Force, designated as a specialist team for the Alliance.

They were back at the repair bay, simply to allow Hunk and Pidge to give the lions a thorough check, plus getting the backups used to how the lions worked. Eileen Tano and Brian Ohara had proven to be nice people and they easily got along with the experienced members of the Voltron Force. So far, the two hadn't been informed just why they had been requested to come to Arus, they just knew that it was for security precautions, as the number of attempts of taking out a lion pilot were too high to ignore the risk, and that right now the Alliance could send them reserve pilots without missing them on other battlefronts.

"I have to say, Black does have a totally different way of handling than Red," Lance told Hunk.

"I would expect so. It is a good deal bigger than the other four after all, not to mention all the controls for Voltron. How much more power does it have?" Hunk asked curiously, "I mean, I know all the technical data, but flying Black would be different than just knowing those facts."

"Very true. While Red is speedy and agile, Black has a whole lot of raw power on top of that. You need to consider that while flying him to get the speed manoeuvres that Keith loves doing so much performed properly. I have gained a whole new level of admiration for our fearless leader for making flying Black look so easy. No wonder that he insists on keeping up his physical training as much as he does though. You are dealing with different forces while flying Black," Lance explained.

"And, would you like taking it over permanently?" Hunk asked.

"Honestly, I will be happy the longer Keith can fly Black. It's a huge responsibility to fly that lion," Lance admitted, "I like my position in Red much better. Less things I have to look out for. Even if he's pushing some more of his duties off onto me."

"Well, he has good reasons. I wouldn't want to have to study all those additional things they force him through," Hunk commented, "At least it will be worth it in the end. And as much as Coran and Nanny support the development, they are slave drivers. And you know that Keith has always been and will always be a perfectionist."

"Too true. Well, let's go and see how Pidge, Eileen and Brian did with the data we sent them from the patrol," Lance commented and the two left, not reacting to the obvious listening of the repair bay workers.

"Did you hear that as well?" Enrico, a technician asked his friend.

"Definitely. Something big is going on within the Voltron Force," Adam, said friend and fellow technician nodded, "I don't think Commander Keith has ever allowed or trained somebody else to fly his lion, beyond a few basic lessons for Princess Allura. The fact that Lance would take Black Lion on patrol and commenting on training to substitute in case something happened, there has to be a reason for that."

"And the studies that they mentioned the Colonel to be going through. What could they be for? I mean, while I could imagine that Colonel Keith, thanks to his recent promotion, for all the incredible things he has done for our planet, has to brush up on certain topics, why would Coran and Nanny be involved in those studies? Coran normally only trains the Princess," Enrico pondered.

"Uh, I have a far-fetched idea, but I don't know how much there might be to it. But, what if the possible engagement, which is the hottest topic in the castle gossip, is with Keith?" Adam voiced his thoughts.

"You know the Princess has to marry a prince. As much as I would wish it was different and the Commander of the Voltron Force was allowed to marry her. He would be the perfect choice for both her husband and our new king. I mean, it's due to him that we got back up from the state that Zarkon left us in. While the other pilots of Voltron certainly played a huge part as well, it was him that always created strategies, that motivated and trained them to be that good. And contrary to the Alliance, he actually did the work needed to help our people. We know that, except for the Voltron Force, until now there wasn't official support for us. We had to fight for everything we have now," Enrico said.

"Remember the symbol on his official uniform? The one from Fanos? What if they recently found out he was allowed to marry her? The discovery of hidden descendants of royal lines isn't unknown after all. Many families desperately tried to hide their children from the attacks of Drules. And all it would take would be a DNA test to find that part out. The ball that is going to take place in two weeks' time is, as far as popular suspicion around the castle goes, to announce the engagement of the princess. Just let us assume that this could be true, then I would bet my salary for the next six months that Keith would right now be researching any kind of file that he could get his hands onto about the future fiancé. And, with Pidge being a computer genius, he would have access to anything he wanted to get into his hands within a few hours. Pidge would come through for him. And still he is studying for something else, something that, according to what we just heard, will be worth it in the opinion of Hunk and Lance. What could be worth more than marrying Princess Allura?" Adam listed his arguments.

"If you put it like that, yes, there is some logic to it. Should the ball really be to announce an engagement, the commander would be doing double shifts to not only have security at the highest level he can achieve, he would also be making sure that the possible fiancé was what he appeared to be. The commander would never let anything get past him in concerns of the Princess's safety. And I did get the impression that he cared for her very much, but also that he would never try anything inappropriate with her, at least not in public. I mean, rumours about a possible relationship between the two have been going around for ages now, but nothing could ever be truly proven," Enrico nodded.

"Perhaps we can find out if there are more clues. If it is true, well, nothing better could happen to Arus. With Colonel Keith as king we would finally be safe," Adam stated.

"That's right. He would make a great king," Enrico agreed.

They then were called over to help with the repairs for the lions and set to work, but they would be telling their friends what they had overheard and their possible theory and, just like that, the rumours among the castle would be increasing again.

* * *

The castle was abuzz with the newest rumours, ones which Nanny was very excited to hear about, even if she kept to her prim and proper façade. The numerous small hints that she had let drop over the span of two and a half weeks, with some assistance of the Voltron Force, who had been included in the plan to have the staff aware without having to come out officially, had finally done their job. The most popular theory among the employees at the Castle of Lions was that Princess Allura would actually announce her engagement to Colonel Keith Kogane at the royal ball that would be taking place in just one and a half weeks. Everything had worked out perfectly and the preparations, assisted by the rumours, were going very smoothly. It was time to hammer in the last nail, the secret project that she had asked Grace and Mary, two of the most experienced maids in the castle, to be ready for.

She entered the kitchen, causing the assembled service staff to go silent.

"Ah, Grace and Mary, good that I directly find you. I need you to come with me for the project we talked about. Bring all the cleaning supplies we talked about as well as three sets of the silk linens that I had the inventory taken about two weeks ago," Nanny instructed, "I want you to bring three differently coloured sets, I need to check which colour works best."

"Of course, Nanny," Mary agreed and she and Grace stood from their seats.

They got looks from the others, nodding at the implied question to tell them as much as possible later on. Mary went to get three sets of silk linens while Grace put together the needed cleaning supplies. Then they were met outside of the kitchen by Nanny, following her into the royal wing of the castle.

"Now, I chose you two for this job, as this information can't be getting into the wrong hands before it doesn't matter anymore," Nanny strictly told the two.

"Of course, but why the secrecy, Nanny?" Mary asked.

"Because I need you two to help me getting the royal master suite ready," Nanny told them.

"You mean; the princess is really going to be engaged?" Mary asked excitedly.

"Yes, she has accepted the proposal of a young prince, but we can't let the information get out too early on, as we don't want the ball, where the official announcement will take place, be attacked by Doom. You know how obsessed Prince Lotor is with making the princess his bride. And you know that by the traditions of Arus, engagement is formally binding, practically only just one step below what the people on earth consider a marriage, even if we will hold the wedding a good deal later, simply because the list of people that need to be invited doesn't allow for it at the current time. An engagement ceremony allows us to only invite our closest allies and friends, which is common for a normal suitor to be introduced, and has happened in the past many times," Nanny pointed out.

"Are the rumours true that it is Colonel Keith Kogane?" Grace asked.

"I can neither confirm nor deny that question. I'm obliged to keep the secrecy of the identity of the princess's fiancé at this time. But I can tell you that I consider the young man very worthy of our princess and have no doubt that he will make her very happy and will be a great king for our people," Nanny avoided giving a clear answer.

"Alright, we understand, Nanny. Then let's do our best to give the princess a new suite that is worthy of all she does for our people and planet," Mary declared, getting a proud smile from Nanny and an enthusiastic nod from Grace.

* * *

Mary and Grace returned from the job of preparing the royal master suite after four hours of intense work. There was a lot to be done to have it ready for the princess to move in there with her fiancé. The suite had only been cleaned once a month since the resurgence of the new Castle of Lions, and only in the most basic way, as nobody lived in it and it would have been a waste of resources to have everything in prim condition while other parts of the castle were lived in regularly. They had cleaned each part and then discussed which colours schemes for decoration would be working out the best. In the end, they decided to go with a royal blue for the linens and put some pictures of famous sights of Arus into the empty spots for paintings on the walls.

There were pictures of nature as well as monuments there. The carpet would be delivered the next day, as the old one wasn't one that the princess liked enough to keep it. As King Alfor and Queen Ariana had never inhabited the suite, there wasn't any sentimental value in keeping things in there, which meant that the princess would have the room the way she liked it. New curtains and towels for the bathroom were already prepared and would be put into the suite during their next shift in there. Nanny didn't think it was needed today, as the engagement would only be announced at the ball.

"And, what can you tell us?" Alina immediately asked.

"There are parts that we can't talk about, as we swore it to Nanny. I can confirm that the rumours aren't far off, that much I'm allowed to say, but Nanny didn't confirm the newest rumour, but also didn't deny it. Make of it what you want. She also told us that a week before the ball more instructions will be given out," Grace told the others.

That was a fairly clear statement. The rumours said the ball was for the engagement of the Princess, but the identity of the prince to marry her was still in doubt. Everything so far pointed at the Commander of the Voltron Force. If the two had done a job that confirmed the main rumours, meaning the engagement, then things would become very interesting very soon.

"Why the secrecy?" Jennifer asked.

"Security reasons. No communication is allowed outside of the castle right now, if it doesn't go through Pidge's new system. And voice calls have been cut totally, as you already noticed. This is really big and nobody wants Doom to interfere and ruin things again," Mary explained.

The information was simply taken as fact. They all suffered regularly under the constant attacks. It was logical that the princess's engagement would fall under the highest security precautions ever.


	5. Attack

**This is the last chapter for this story. Happy reading.**

* * *

 **Attack**

It was five days before the ball and the Voltron Force was escorting the princess to a meeting with the mayor of the closest town. Just yesterday Nanny and Coran had told the staff officially that the ball was for the engagement of Princess Allura and to keep that information strictly confidential. They had also given everybody security instructions that Keith had worked out, which didn't surprise anybody. They all knew how serious he was about keeping the princess safe and even if some things looked over the top, nobody complained.

Today they would be talking about a trade conference that would be held in the town, simply because it was the one closest to the castle, in one month's time. Currently everybody was too busy with the ball, but after that, the trade conference would be the main topic. Preparations had been delegated to the leading merchants of the planet, but occasionally the princess needed to be involved and just be seen. It gave the people a lot of hope and a visible ruler was always better than one that only acted behind closed doors. Not to mention that Allura insisted on hearing the concerns of her people.

To make things as safe as possible, as Keith was concerned about a possible attack to sour the mood for the ball, they had taken the lions to go. Coran had approved the decision, as he was much happier if the princess had powerful protection with her when she left the castle.

"How long will the meeting take?" Lance asked over the private com-channel of the lions.

"We expect it to take around an hour to an hour and a half," Allura answered.

"So, you and Keith will be in the meeting at the time, while we do patrols outside?" Pidge asked.

"That's the plan. As the trade conference will be the first big event when the public will see me in my new function, it made the most sense that I accompanied Allura to the meetings from the start," Keith answered.

"It will definitely be strange to address you that formally in public, Keith," Hunk commented.

"I only want you to do that when we are on official functions. When we are among ourselves, no matter if inside the castle or not, I don't want you to treat me any different. You are my friends and I really don't like that much formality. I just can't get around it if I don't want to embarrass Arus," Keith told them.

"Don't worry, fearless leader, we will keep you grounded!" Lance announced, which made them all laugh easily.

They had talked about the change in Keith's position in detail and for them not much would change, except at official events, where formality between military personnel and the king and queen was unavoidable. They then reached the town and Black and Blue Lion landed, while the other three took to patrolling the area for possible dangers. Their reserve pilots had gone into the town on horseback, with the order to also watch out for any possible disturbances, and to get used to the locations. Brian and Eileen had easily accepted the orders. Right now, the two stood next to the town hall's entrance, waiting for their commander to decide where they should take position.

"Anything you noticed?" Keith asked after leaving his lion and walking over to the two reserve members of the Voltron Force.

"Nothing, Keith. Everything looked normal," Brian answered.

"Very good. Princess Allura and I will be busy for at least an hour. Patrol together and call in with Lance every ten minutes. He's in command while I'm inside," Keith told them.

"Understood," Both nodded and then left to use a standard patrolling pattern that was taught at the academy for places you weren't fully familiar with.

* * *

Merla watched how the commander of the Voltron Force and the Princess of Arus went into the town hall for a meeting, with the other lions being out on patrol around the place.

"Not a bad tactic to use," She commented easily, "They have direct access to powerful weapons immediately, should something happen."

"What do you plan to do, Merla?" Zarkon asked over the com-channel that connected Merla's star cutter with Doom's castle.

"I have brought with me the poison Haggar worked on for two months. I will sneakily have it delivered to the Commander of the Voltron Force. I have already put a cute little child under my mind control, to have an unsuspicious source of the 'gift'. They will never suspect a child to work in our service, especially not one that is known to live in the village," Merla answered.

"Excellent, Merla. This sounds promising. With Keith out of the way, it will be much easier to defeat Planet Arus. And I would love the irony of thwarting their nice ball that your spies reported about. I don't think the princess will be up to dancing with some new prince that wants to court her for her hand after losing her dear commander," Zarkon laughed.

"Yes, once the commander is taken out of commission, I will let them suffer and worry for a while. I intentionally asked Haggar to make the poison a fast acting one. After all, we don't want him to recover from this. This will destroy their morale much better than any hard one-hit attack with a robeast. They are too used to those cropping up regularly by now. And there is no need to waste a good robeast before we can maximise the effect its appearance would have on the planet," Merla pointed out.

Zarkon cut the connection off.

"Queen Merla, what are your orders?" Her soldiers asked.

"We wait. The plan is already set in motion. And the antidote for the poison is very uncommon. I doubt that they can find it in time. And it's more important to eliminate Keith Kogane permanently than having my fun with him. I can have any number of other men. He isn't interesting enough to obsess over him, like that fool Lotor does over Princess Allura. And she will certainly suffer from losing her beloved Commander," Merla grinned evilly at the thought.

Zarkon was a fool to think that she would hand over Planet Arus once she had conquered it. While she might assist him in his plans, her final goal was taking over his kingdom in the end. This was just a way to gather valuable information about how his system worked. If Lotor wouldn't be such a fool, she would have gone the easy way of marrying him to gain the power legally after the death of his father, which could easily be arranged, but the Prince of Doom was only interested in the fair Princess of Arus. Well, if he knew that she had already given her heart to the dashing Commander of the Voltron Force, he would be even harder to tolerate around herself. And to get into the best position to strike, it was necessary to tolerate him for now.

* * *

Keith and Allura returned from the meeting after one hour and fifteen minutes. Discussions had worked out very well and the council of the town was very happy with the suggestions that both Keith and Allura had made. While some might have wondered why the Commander of the Voltron Force was basically sharing the work with their princess, nobody really commented on it. The Voltron Force had worked their way into the hearts of the people of Arus, thanks to their constant protection for them, and especially the Commander was beloved by the people, nearly as much as the princess herself was.

When the group exited the house, they were met with a group of townspeople that wanted to have the chance to see and speak with their princess. As Brian and Eileen didn't signal anything being wrong, Keith and Allura took their time to talk to the people, listen to some wishes they had and also took some small presents, for both them and the other three known members of the Voltron Force. The excitement was large enough to convince Keith and Allura to unwrap some of the presents right there, including one from a little girl that had given one to Keith. It turned out to be a cute pottered figure of a lion.

"Thank you a lot, this is a really nice lion," Keith smiled at the little girl and got a beaming smile in return.

After twenty minutes of talking with the people, Keith and Allura went back into their lions and caught up to the other three lions. But two minutes into the flight, Keith felt dizzy.

"Shit, what's going on?" He cursed.

"Keith? What's wrong?" Allura asked concerned.

He felt the world spinning around him and knew he had to land his lion safely before he could crash.

"Dizzy, I need to land," Keith brought out and tried to bring the lion down softly, but the effect got worse immediately.

"Hunk, Pidge, catch Black Lion and take it into escort position. I'll send the override codes Keith taught me to take control over Black from Red. Keith, don't worry, we'll get you to the castle. Just let us do the work," Lance took control.

He had got used to being commander for patrols and the like, thanks to Keith being too busy with learning how to be king, and this scenario was one Keith had drilled into him one evening. Normally this was Keith's responsibility, but in case any of the pilots was knocked out, especially after one too many plans of Zarkon including taking out a pilot, Keith had worked out override codes for all lions to remote control them to get them back to safety. Ironic that he was the first one to need this measure. Lance sent the code immediately and a remote-control screen for Black Lion appeared on his own screen.

"Keith, hold on, we're going to be there soon," Allura begged, her voice full of worry.

Keith only could nod before he slumped in his seat. The lions shot towards the castle.

"Coran, get Dr Gorma ready, we are bringing in Keith as an emergency. From what I get, I would guess he was poisoned in some way. And I don't know how fast it acts, but he's knocked out," Lance reported.

"I'll have everything ready, Lance," Coran promised and the screen went dark again.

"Great, and this five days before his engagement could be publicly announced," Hunk growled, "This has to be a mean plan from Zarkon again. I bet Haggar is behind this poison attack."

"Very much possible, Hunk. We will see what we need to do once we know what's the full situation with Keith," Lance stated.

They landed the lions on the bridge of the castle, where Dr Gorma waited with a team of assistants, ready to take over the immediate treatment of Keith. Lance and Hunk went into Black Lion to get Keith out and quickly put him onto the stretcher that the medical team had prepared. Dr Gorma immediately started with the examination and his face was grave after the first images he got.

"Get him into the medical bay immediately. Everything indicates poison, I need my medicine supplies and the machines to keep him safe," Dr Gorma declared.

The assistants lifted the stretcher, while Lance told Coran what had happened, with some input from Allura, as she had been the only one closest to Keith. Just when the four members of the Voltron Force were done with their first report, Brian and Eileen came galloping onto the bridge.

"Lance, one of the children that was in the group that gave presents to Keith and the Princess suddenly broke down crying and babbled about a bad present that the mean woman made her give to one of them," Eileen immediately stated.

"How did the child look like?" Allura asked.

"Cute little girl with braided red hair in twin ponytails," Brian answered.

"The lion figure. We need to get it to Dr Gorma to analyse whatever thing it was poisoned with. That could save Keith," Allura declared.

"Where is the figure?" Coran asked.

"It should be inside Black Lion," Allura answered and Pidge immediately jumped up and entered the cockpit. Soon he came back with several things wrapped in a bag.

"I have got all the things in there. Including that lion figure you mentioned," Pidge stated.

"Great, then we will hopefully soon know how to neutralise the poison," Coran nodded.

* * *

The medical personnel immediately set to work on analysing the kind of poison that Keith had been given. While that was going on, Keith was put onto an IV with a general antidote and Dr Gorma set up a dialyse to clean out as much poison from his blood as he could. It was more a measure to win time, but it had proven very useful in the past. All the time Allura paced in front of the medical bay, worried about Keith. It took two hours until Dr Gorma came out of the room.

"We know the kind of poison they hit him with. We are actually lucky that he was in his flight suit and wore gloves when he touched the lion figure, otherwise he would already be dead. That poison is very potent. As far as we could tell, the wrapping was made of a special material that isolated the poison, which is the reason why the one giving it to Keith didn't die. This plan was very well-thought out to kill him. I guess Haggar created the poison. There is one antidote, but we need to get the main component for it here within a day. And it's really rare and I don't know where on Arus it might be found," Dr Gorma stated.

"What is it?" Allura begged, hating the thought of Keith's life being threatened this severely.

"We need blossoms of red Polluxian Lilies. That's the only thing that can help him," Dr Gorma told them the news.

"But Polluxian lilies are either yellow or pink," Pidge commented.

"That's why I said it was really rare. Only one in ten thousand Polluxian Lilies is red," Dr Gorma explained, "It is a recessive combination gene in the breed that is very popular on Pollux, which is why the red lily is part of the royal crest. Gardeners have tried breeding red lilies with any consistency, but they can only guess which plants to cross to gain one. Even crossing two red lilies isn't a guarantee that the lily coming from them would be red. Normally a cross is pink."

"I'm calling Romelle and Bandor. Perhaps they have some red lilies," Allura stated and ran out of the room.

"I will call all gardeners on Arus," Coran asked, "Hopefully one of them has a red lily."

The others nodded and set off to make their own calls. They wouldn't let their commander and friend die, thanks to a new evil plan of Doom.

* * *

Five hours after the verdict of Dr Gorma there were some good news. Romelle had managed to track down a red lily and was sending Sven with it to Arus on one of the fastest space ships that Pollux had available. Normally he should be arriving in four hours, which was well within the time limit that Keith had to get the antidote. The bad news was that Keith was thrashing around in his bed in pain, no matter which kind of painkillers Dr Gorma gave him. The sooner he got the antidote, the better.

* * *

Merla didn't like the news that her spies brought to her. First, Keith Kogane was still alive, even if he was on borrowed time, with the time limit being one day. Still, the poison should have worked within three hours after contact at most. Second, it seemed that the Polluxian Princess Romelle had found a red lily and was sending it to Arus with her fastest ship. That couldn't be tolerated. She would have to act.

"We are going to intercept that ship from Pollux. The Commander of the Voltron Force will die this time around!" She ordered and her crew confirmed the order.

She wouldn't let her plan be thwarted. She would break the spirits of the Voltron Force, and especially that little Princess of Arus, once and for all. Losing their friend this way would certainly get the job done. And without Keith Kogane, Arus would fall to her troops. Then she would have Voltron to take over total leadership of the Drule Empire.

* * *

The alarm of enemy ships being sighted over Arus blared through the corridors, making people hurry to the safe rooms. The Voltron Force ran towards the castle control.

"What's going on, Coran?" Lance asked.

"Queen Merla and her fleet are in our orbit," Coran answered, "This is really bad, the ship from Pollux will get trapped in that set-up. If they shoot Sven down, we will never get another lily in time."

"No, they won't," Allura growled like an angry lioness.

"Definitely not. Brian, you are taking Red. I'm going to fly Black and we will show those bastards why you don't mess with the Voltron Force," Lance instructed, "Coran, raise the dais, we are going to shoot some Drule ships from the sky."

Coran lifted the command centre and allowed the five pilots to get down to the lions. Now he was incredibly glad that they already had trained replacement pilots present that could take over in case one of the main pilots was unavailable, like Keith was at the moment. Probably Queen Merla had been behind the plan, the child had after all talked about a mean woman making her do this, and thought that with Keith dead she would have an easy time conquering Planet Arus. He could only hope that the lions could prevent that the Drule Queen could stop Sven from reaching Planet Arus.

* * *

Merla didn't believe her eyes for a moment when all five lions rose from the planet to meet her fleet.

"How the hell did they manage to launch all lions? Keith is fighting for his life in the medical wing and unconscious," She demanded to know.

"My queen, the lions are attacking any ship they find without hesitation," Came the warning from one of her staff.

"It doesn't matter; we only need to stop the ship from Pollux. Divide the starfighters into two groups. One to keep those pesky lions busy and one to shoot down the ship from Pollux. And try detecting which lion has the least experienced pilot and concentrate the attacks there," Merla ordered.

She watched how her orders were followed immediately and concentrated on the way the Voltron lions worked. It was clear that there was no trouble for whoever was piloting the Black Lion. She would have thought that the one that was substituting for Keith would be inexperienced in how to control that lion, as it was larger than the normal ones, but there was clearly somebody that was used to the lion inside. Blue, Green and Yellow also didn't seem unusual, but she wouldn't say that the Red Lion was piloted by a rookie. The pilot knew what he did. But if she had to guess which lion had a new pilot, she would put her money on Red.

"Concentrate the attacks on Red Lion. That one doesn't attack as smoothly as the other ones," She instructed.

"Yes, Queen Merla," Was the reply.

"I will get Planet Arus and I won't let my plans be thwarted by the Voltron Force again," Merla growled.

* * *

Sven noticed the fleet of Drule ships in the orbit around Arus long before he got close to the position. He knew that they were probably out to shoot him down to prevent that he could bring the antidote that would save Keith's life. He would definitely not let them succeed. Thankfully he had worked with the scientists of Pollux on tactics that would allow them to work with more military options in battles against the Drule Empire, which also targeted Pollux, as it was known that the planet was an ally of Planet Arus. Sven had used his connection to Princess Romelle to convince Prince Bandor that they needed unique tactics to thwart the plans of the Drules. And that included having ways to attack enemy ships without them being aware of it.

The starfighter that he had chosen to fly to Arus as fast as possible was one of the newest developments.

' _They think that they can shoot me down to make sure Keith can't be saved, but they don't know about the new cloaking technology that we developed on Pollux. Let them try finding me, I will just slip past them. I only need to keep some distance from the actual battle. The lions will take care of that, I'm sure,'_ Sven thought.

He activated the disguise cloak that his ship was equipped with and flew a slight detour compared to the direct path, which was currently the battlefield, to get past the Drule ships and onto the surface of the planet. Being in a small ship had a lot of advantages. He didn't contact anybody, as secrecy and stealth were the better solution for this situation. His new route took thirty minutes longer than planned, but he entered the atmosphere of Planet Arus without any trouble and any Drule ship detecting him.

' _That went very well. Nobody noticed anything. I will just have to let Coran inform the others that take the ships out that I arrived safely so that they can wrap their battle up. Well, at least the new replacement pilot gets some hands-on experience in a lion. That's important for when they have to deal with a new robeast.'_

Sven directed his starfighter towards the castle and only undid his cloak directly before he contacted the castle.

"Castle Control, this is Sven Holgerson. I will land in front of the castle in a few minutes with the lily. Have Dr Gorma ready to receive it," Sven contacted the castle.

"Sven, thank goodness, how are you here already? The others didn't inform me about your arrival," Coran asked.

"This ship isn't just fast, it has the newest technology from Pollux, including a cloak that lets it adapt its appearance like a chameleon on Earth. They didn't notice me at all when I slipped past their blockade and onto the planet," Sven answered.

"That's fantastic news. I will have Dr Gorma ready," Coran stated very relieved.

Sven reached the castle and initiated the landing. Soon he was done and opened the cockpit to jump down from it. The lily was secured in a capsule made from a very hard material to protect it against damage. He found that a woman he didn't know was waiting for him, but she was wearing an Alliance uniform.

"Captain Sven, I'm Private Eileen Tano. Coran asked me to escort you to the medical wing. Colonel Keith isn't in a good state, so the earlier we can add the blossoms to the antidote, the better," She informed him.

"Lead the way," Sven nodded and they quickly made their way towards the medical wing.

Sven immediately saw what Eileen had talked about, as Keith was thrashing around in a hospital bed, well, as far as he could with his limbs being secured with straps to prevent that he hurt himself. Sven went over to Dr Gorma and handed over the lily.

"Thank you so much, Sven. Now we can finish the antidote and heal him," Dr Gorma said.

"I'm relieved I got here in time," Sven stated.

Dr Gorma took the flower, which had four blossoms on it, from the capsule and carefully cut the blossoms from the stems. Then the petals were taken from the blossom and the rest powdered down. The petals were put into a fluid and heated over a Bunsen burner until they disintegrated. Both parts were then added to an Erlenmeyer flask and everything was heated together, until an even fluid was produced. Dr Gorma took the fluid from the heat and poured it through a system of glass pipes, which were all bathed in cold water, which cooled the liquid down to a temperature where it could safely be used in an injection. Dr Gorma filled one syringe with the fluid, which was red like the petals had been, and injected it into the IV that led to Keith's arm. A direct injection into the arm would have been impossible at this point, except by using something like a blowing dart. Keith's thrashing was far too extreme to safely hit a vein. It took ten minutes, but then Keith started to thrash less and less, before it totally stopped after thirty minutes.

"Thank goodness. The antidote works," Dr Gorma stated.

"Fantastic, Doctor," Sven exclaimed happily, "When will he wake up again?"

"I need to examine him first, but it depends on the level of damage his body took from the poison. I guess he should wake up by tomorrow at the latest and if nothing too serious was damaged, I doubt I can keep him much longer than three days, if that long. He hates hospitals and letting others take care of him," Dr Gorma commented with a shake of his head.

"Isn't that the truth?" Sven agreed with a chuckle.

Keith was infamous for his dislike of having to go to the doctors and being stuck at the hospital was pure torture for him and he regularly discharged himself, telling everybody he was okay. Well, perhaps Allura would manage to keep him there until Dr Gorma allowed him to leave. You didn't mess around with poison. And Keith needed to be back up on his feet in five days. It would be really bad to miss his own engagement ball after all. And yes, Sven, Romelle and Bandor were among the very small group of people that knew what was truly going on, as Allura had called Romelle and given a coded message to her, which Sven could decode, as he knew which codes meant what. They were all very happy for Keith and Allura. In that regard, Pollux had less problematic laws.

Bandor had simply declared Sven a knight of Pollux for his help to Romelle and with that he was allowed to court her. While he himself had needed a bit more time to accept it, Bandor and especially Romelle could be very stubborn and blunt. And any prince or princess could name people knights, as long as there was a good enough reason for it, thus the problem with the marriage to another royal was less pronounced. On Arus only a king or queen could bestow that kind of honour, and you could only ascend to the throne unmarried when you were twenty-five.

* * *

"That were the last ships, Merla is leaving," Lance declared triumphantly, "But has anybody seen Sven's ship? He should have reached us by now."

"No, I didn't notice anything on the scanners," Pidge answered.

"Neither did I," Hunk added.

"Guys, Coran wants to talk to us," Brian threw in.

"Coran, what's the situation?" Lance asked, opening a channel to the castle.

"Good news, Sven has landed on Arus a while ago while you distracted Merla and her troops. Keith has got the antidote administered by Dr Gorma and is out of danger. He will stay asleep for some hours to allow Dr Gorma to treat the damage that the poison did to his body without him protesting too much, but he will make a full recovery. He should be back on his feet the day after tomorrow, even if he will have to take it easy for another day or two," Coran told them.

Cheers rang through all lions. That was the best news of the day.

"How did Sven get past us without us or Merla noticing anything?" Pidge asked excitedly.

Sven appeared next to Coran.

"My ship has a new technology that I developed with the scientists of Pollux. It allows me to cloak my ship, like a chameleon," Sven answered.

"That's incredible," Pidge declared.

"Sven, thank you so much for saving Keith," Allura exclaimed moved.

"It was my pleasure, Allura. I would never have left my friend to die," Sven declared, "And I would never have wanted to spoil Romelle's fun of attending that ball."

That made others laugh, as they could imagine their friend being henpecked by the beautiful princess of Pollux, who was quite the forceful character.

"We will come back to the castle," Lance informed them.

"We will see you then," Coran nodded and they cut the connection.

If Blue Lion was the first to be back, nobody commented on it.

* * *

Keith slowly opened his eyes, having to first get used to the light again. He could see some silhouettes close by, but he couldn't determine who it was yet. His mind was a bit slow, it felt as if it was filled with cotton.

"He's waking up," He heard a voice say and then felt somebody's hand in his.

He instinctively knew it to be Allura's.

"Keith," He heard her voice.

"'Lura," He brought out.

"Shh, don't talk too much yet. I'm just so happy you are awake again," She told him, brushing a soft hand over his cheek.

Keith needed a few more minutes to be coherent and then turned his head around, finding the other members of the Voltron Force, including the two new ones, Sven, Coran, Nanny and Dr Gorma standing around his bed. Dr Gorma gave him a small cup of water to drink, which helped his dry throat a lot.

"How are you feeling, Keith?" Dr Gorma asked.

"Heavy," Keith decided on a description, "And my mind feels fuzzy."

"Okay, that isn't the worst situation I was prepared for. You will probably need a few hours to have the effects of the sedatives that you were put under leave your mind, so it feeling fuzzy isn't too surprising. Do you feel pain anywhere?" Dr Gorma asked.

Keith carefully tried moving some body parts and found at most a slight soreness, like after he had overdone his training again.

"Nothing beyond a little soreness when I overdo it in training," Keith answered.

"Good, then you should be back on your feet very soon. And I insist you stay at the medical wing for at least the whole day tomorrow, Keith. You don't mess around with poison," Dr Gorma said strictly.

"So, it was poison. I wasn't sure when I suddenly felt dizzy," Keith sighed.

"How much do you remember?" Allura asked.

"I felt that my sight was suddenly switching in and out and I felt horribly dizzy. How did they poison me?" He asked.

"Merla put one of the children that gave you and Allura presents under her mind control. The pottered lion figure that you got was made from clay that they drenched in the poison. Brian and Eileen noticed how the girl suddenly had a breakdown after you had both already taken off and heard her babble about a mean woman forcing her to give you that present," Lance told him, "You were lucky that you unwrapped it while wearing your flight suit, especially your gloves. The wrapping was a special material that isolated from the poison, so the child didn't get harmed, we sent a team down to the town to make sure that nobody else was hit, but any other material would only dull the effect. Dr Gorma managed to slow the effect down to give us enough time to acquire the main ingredient of the antidote, which Sven brought from Pollux."

Keith turned to Sven.

"Thank you, my friend," Keith stated.

"You would have done the same for me or any of us. I was glad that I could help," Sven replied.

"Was there an attack? I doubt that Merla would have ignored the opportunity to hit Arus while she believed me out of commission or already dead," Keith asked.

"Yes, they seemingly wanted to prevent that Sven could reach the planet. Somebody seems to have intercepted the message to Pollux that was sent and Merla was ready to shoot his ship down. Thankfully he had a new technology that he helped develop that let him cloak his ship and slip past the blockade and get the flower to Dr Gorma," Pidge explained, "We went up in the lions and destroyed all the ships Merla had there until she had to flee in her star cutter."

"They honestly seemed to be surprised to have to deal with all five lions and that none of them was an easy target," Lance said, "Brian did well on his first real mission in Red Lion."

"It was great flying Red, Lance. The lion is so fast and I love how I can fry Drule ships with the flamethrowers," Brian exclaimed, which made the others laugh.

"Well, for the next two days you and Eileen will share patrol duty in Red," Lance told them, "Keith has to stay in bed after all, which means, you are getting some more practice in."

The two new pilots grinned. Now that it was sure that Keith would recover fully, they could enjoy the chance to fly the lions.

"Well, I think we should let Keith rest a while longer, we still have lots of work to do before the ball," Nanny declared and everybody outside of Sven and Allura left the medical wing, wishing Keith to soon be back on his feet.

Keith talked a little more to Sven about the new cloaking technology, being very impressed with the possibilities it offered, and Allura about how they seemingly needed to be even more careful of dastardly plans to get either of them in unconventional ways than before. Then he felt too tired to keep his eyes open and Sven left, while Allura stayed with him while he slept.

* * *

Keith was back on his feet two days after being poisoned, but still grounded from flying his lion by Dr Gorma. As there was too much to do for the ball anyway, he didn't protest too much. Nanny was relentless in making sure that everything was like it should be, which included the clothes for both Keith and Allura. As they were giving a strong statement with their engagement, which would undoubtedly have Lotor storm to Arus like a toddler with a temper tantrum, the Voltron Force was ready to intercept any kind of ships that Lotor might bring. The Alliance had also prepared a few ships, which were positioned in two places. One part on the surface of Arus and one only a short distance away in space, ready to jump to the planet via hyperspace at a moment's notice.

With Voltron added to that, well, they were sure that they could deal with Lotor. Hopefully permanently, because Keith and Allura were seriously sick of his attempts to kidnap Allura all the time.

Thus, Brian got some patrol time in Red Lion, while Eileen got it in Blue Lion. And while Lance was currently the leader of the Voltron Force, Keith had left him with some instructions on what to practice with the new pilots. Hunk and Pidge helped with the training. To anybody outside of the castle, it appeared as if things were back to normal, with the Voltron Force going about their duties without change. Well, nobody could look into the lions for the identity of their pilots after all.

Sven was back on Pollux, he had left the evening of the day he had brought them the flower, which was now planted in the royal greenhouse of the castle, and he would return accompanying Romelle and Bandor when they arrived for the ball. As Pollux was only a few hours' flight away, it wasn't too problematic to fly back without it being a huge waste of time.

* * *

Preparations for the ball were in full swing now, with Nanny being quite short with any of the staff, if things weren't done properly and in time. Thankfully many things were already done, which reduced the stress levels of everybody.

Keith and Allura looked at each other, both now wearing their chosen clothes for the ball. In just thirty minutes their official engagement would be announced by Coran. Given Keith's military background, he was wearing an adjusted version of his Alliance uniform, just this time it was in the colours of Planet Arus. He had refused to follow any Fanos traditions in the matter, as he had no emotional ties to the planet at all. He wore the mark of the royal family, as it was his claim to being able to marry Allura, but more he wouldn't do. His research had given him a few answers as to how he could be the grandson of the last Fanos king and never know about it. A DNA comparison with old data made it clear that his father, Kenneth Kogane, was his biological father, just the woman he had always called mother wasn't. She had married his father three months before he had been born and was listed on his birth certificate as his mother, but there hadn't been a DNA probe taken.

After finding one nurse that had been on duty during the time he had been born, they could determine that his father had been forced to leave Fanos when it became known that he and Princess Hecate had had an affair, which the king absolutely didn't allow. To prevent that the royal family of Fanos was burdened with a bastard child of a commoner being born to them, the king had agreed to leave the child in question, Keith, to his biological father, under the premise that Kenneth would never demand any privileges that Keith should have been entitled to due to his mother's position.

The birth was kept secret and Kenneth's wife agreed to be listed on the birth certificate as Keith's mother, especially as she had lost her ability to have children due to an accident in her teenager years. Keith was never told that his mother wasn't his biological mother, as it wouldn't have done any good anyway. She had loved him from the moment he had been handed over to her, with Princess Hecate being taken back to Fanos the moment she was able to travel in a space ship. She wasn't more than a surrogate mother in Keith's eyes. Angela Kogane was his mother in all ways that mattered, as far as he was concerned. And if not for the right to marry Allura that being born to a Princess gave Keith, he wouldn't have cared at all.

The announcement would only entail that the identity of his birth mother had been found out during a DNA test for an unrelated medical examination and that it gave him the right, as a prince, to marry Princess Allura of Arus. Nothing more needed to be known, and the nurse had sworn to not reveal anything, she only told him, because she felt he had a right to know, as his parents couldn't tell him themselves anymore.

Allura wore a long, dark violet ball gown, with some of the saved crown jewels of Arus, including a tiara carved from a single diamond that only the crown princess was allowed to wear, contrary to the circlet that she normally wore to indicate her station.

"I'm kind of nervous, Keith," Allura admitted, "I'm so happy that we will finally be officially together forever, but I still worry that something goes wrong."

"Everything will go perfectly, Nanny won't allow anything else," Keith assured her with a smile, "And each and every single guest was checked for actually being who they claim to be and I had background checks run on them before they even got an invitation. Helps that I did them for previous balls already. I don't know if I could have done it within the month we had for preparations otherwise."

"Did you know that your lack of reaction to my supposed engagement was one of the major clues to the staff that it was probably you who I'm going to marry?" Allura giggled.

"What can I say, I will never leave anything to chance when your safety is at stake," Keith stated without regret.

"I know. And I'm happy that you care so much for me," Allura kissed him, which he returned.

They forced themselves to stop before the kiss became too heated.

"Soon," Keith whispered while leaning his forehead against hers.

"Very soon," She agreed and pecked him on the lips.

"Highnesses, are you ready?" Coran asked in his formal voice, as Allura had dubbed it long ago.

"Yes, Coran, we are ready," Allura confirmed and Keith nodded.

"Then let's present you to the crowd. I can assuredly say that only the Pollux delegation has any idea that this is anything than a normal ball to allow a new suitor a chance to court our Princess," Coran told them with a smile.

"Good, then nothing could have got out to those we don't want to know before it's too late," Keith commented satisfied.

"I'm going to announce your arrival officially and then you will have to open the dance. I guess most guests will realise that we are building up to an engagement announcement at the height of the ball when you share the first dance, but that doesn't matter. Nobody can call out of the castle, which means the official statements that we will send tomorrow, will be the first kind of news getting out," Coran commented, "And, as you requested, we will at first only give the guests your military rank, not the fact that you are a prince."

Allura and Keith nodded with a smile. That surprise would be kept until the official announcement.

They followed Coran to the large doors that separated the corridor from the ballroom. Coran went inside and they heard the official announcement and then the pages that were manning the doors today opened them and allowed them entry. Keith was escorting Allura down the stairs, which caused, predictably, a lot of whispers. Normally it had been Coran escorting her down during previous balls. To have him in this position started speculations to erupt, even if the guests that were surprised by the development were too well-trained to act on it immediately.

Once they had reached the bottom of the stairs, Keith bowed to Allura, the formal procedure for asking her for the dance, which she accepted with a curtsy. He took position for the waltz and Coran signalled the orchestra to start playing. It took a bit longer than it normally would have for others to join the two of them on the dance floor, the first two actually being Sven and Romelle, who had been prepared for it. Still, they had enjoyed watching the surprised looks on many nobles' faces too much to immediately join when it would have been proper. Sven, as the official fiancée of Princess Romelle of Pollux, was dressed very similar to Keith. A uniform in the colours of Pollux, with his medals and such displayed on it.

The other members of the Voltron Force were positioned around the room, wearing their normal parade uniforms, no matter how some of them detested having to do so. They all wanted to give their friends moral support for the important announcement this evening. Slowly more couples joined the dancers and a few dances were played, with Keith never letting Allura go from his arms. It was a very strong signal to the guests. Once the last dance of the first round was played, Keith escorted Allura to her seat at the main table, taking his seat at her right side, and the other guests were escorted to their seats by pages.

Now dinner would be served and then Coran would take care of the official announcement. It wouldn't be long now anymore. Keith noticed that Allura was a bit tense, with the numerous looks given to her, some questioning as if they thought she was insane for displaying him as her chosen escort for the evening like she did. He took her hand under the table, gently stroking her hand's backside, giving her an encouraging smile, which she returned. Four courses, soup, fish samples, main course and dessert were taken and then Coran stood, making everybody go silent, wanting to know what was going on.

"Honoured guests, in the name of Planet Arus, I thank you all for coming to today's ball. Many of you, as I have heard while making my rounds among you while letting the younger generation enjoy the dancing," Here some of the older generation chuckled, "are wondering about a few differences to previous balls, where Princess Allura graced a young prince with the chance to convince her that a formal courtship would be worthwhile to start. I think you all know that so far none of the princes that vied for our fair Princess's hand have been successful in proving that they matched her expectations in what she desired in a future husband.

"As I was the one to be left with the position of raising her after her parents' untimely deaths, I watched her grow from a scared child to a strong, young woman, who put the welfare of her people before anything else. I have come to know the traits that Princess Allura desired in a prince that was worthy of the hand of a fighter, a princess that took up arms to protect her people from the threat that the constant attacks of Planet Doom posed. And, I had to admit many times, the princes that wanted her, didn't match what our planet needed. Planet Arus was left to fight alone for years, none of our previous allies came to our defence when Planet Doom first attacked and killed our king and queen. How could anybody demand from our princess to marry a prince that only saw her as a means to improve his own position, but wasn't willing to step up to help us?"

There were many agreeing whispers. These were mostly people that had had to deal with similar incidents after all, being forced to hide, because no help was given. And the people of Planet Arus loved their princess and how she hadn't shied away from doing everything to beat the invaders back. Any prince that only wanted her for power or control over Voltron could as well directly leave again. They didn't need that for a future king. And many planetary leaders that had been invited had been saved by Voltron coming to their aid, thus they were very much in favour of letting Allura choose by her standards.

"Now, as you all are aware of, Arusian law stated that the heir to the throne had to marry a noble, in best case a royal. It wasn't easy to find somebody that combined the traits that were needed for our planet to prosper in the future and still be from a noble family. But here coincidence finally favoured our planet. During an unrelated medical examination, which included a DNA test, we found out that somebody that was thought to be of common birth, yet the most noble kind of heart that I ever had the honour to meet, was actually a descendent of a royal family that was thought to have been killed off completely by the forces of King Zarkon.

"Colonel Keith Kogane, leader of our Voltron Force, was found to be the biological son of Princess Hecate of Fanos, who was the youngest daughter of the last king of Fanos, King Rolmon. I had noticed that Princess Allura and Colonel Keith had grown very close, and I was actually already studying our laws for a possible loophole to allow these two, who have gone through countless challenges together with their comrades from the Voltron Force, to have a happy future together. How this fact couldn't have been known, we don't know, but we weren't about to dismiss a blessing like that. Colonel Keith has asked Princess Allura to marry him, and she has happily agreed.

"Thus, to make it official, in my position as the Royal Advisor of Princess Allura, and also her former guardian, I am incredibly honoured and pleased to announce that Prince Keith Kogane of Fanos and Princess Allura Altaire of Arus will be entering the holy bond of marriage as soon as we can ensure that the wedding won't be attacked by dark forces. As is Arusian tradition, Prince Keith and Princess Allura are considered as good as married upon this engagement. I wish to be the first one to congratulate our future King and Queen and wish them a blessed union," Coran declared.

Keith and Allura stood upon the loud applause that the announcement had created. There were some grumbling looks, but the majority of the guests knew that they couldn't have got a better choice of husband for their princess, as Keith had risked his life more than enough to prove that he truly cared for the people of Arus and their princess.

"Coran, I wish to thank you for your kind words and all the help you have given us during the years, since we came to Planet Arus to find out if there was some truth to the legend of Voltron. You have been a steadfast protector to my beloved fiancée, Princess Allura, and I can never thank you enough for protecting her all these years. I hope that you will continue helping us do the best we can for the people of Arus," Keith addressed Coran.

"Yes, thank you so much, Coran. I don't know what I would have done without you all these years. Dear guests, I hope you aren't too cross with us for not telling anybody the reason for this ball, as I know it is tradition to give some presents for the official engagement ball of the crowned heir of Arus, but for security reasons, namely Prince Lotor of Doom being obsessed with the idea of making me his queen, we had to make sure that the ball wouldn't become his newest target. I'm happy to have all of you, including my dear friends from the Voltron Force, here to celebrate my engagement with the man I have loved for years, but couldn't show because of the old rules," Allura told them.

"I know that some of you will wonder if I'm qualified to become king, but I can assure you that Coran and Nanny are making really sure that I am up to the level where I need to be in diplomacy and knowledge of Arus' history. I will promise that I will continue to protect the planet and its people with all my power and one day we will finally have true peace again," Keith declared.

This caused cheers and applause and some chanted 'Long live the future King and Queen. Long Live Queen Allura. Long Live King Keith.'

The two had to take a long line of congratulants before Coran signalled the orchestra to play the official Arusian Royal Waltz, to commemorate the engagement, which was part of the protocol for the event. The musical piece had been composed by one of Arus' most famous musicians two hundred years ago and had since then always been played to signify the first dance of a royal prince or princess with their chosen future spouse or during a wedding, their new spouse. Allura and Keith got lost in the dance, ignoring everything around them. The step was taken and now nobody could stop them from marrying anymore. Well, Lotor would try, but they wouldn't let him. In the eyes of Arus, they were now husband and wife, they just lacked the official ceremony. An engagement couldn't be broken, once officially announced, except one of the partners died before the official wedding ceremony. But that was mostly a formal act of them signing a document in presence of some officials. If not for several people taking offence to not being invited, well, they would have done it earlier.

* * *

Lance, Pidge and Hunk watched happily how Keith and Allura danced their waltz, the happiness obvious on both of their faces. It had been a long way to this point. They had gone through countless attempts of Lotor to kidnap Allura, Keith had been injured more often than anybody cared to count, mainly while saving Allura from one plot or the other, but also because he was the main enemy of Planet Doom, the one that made the Voltron Force into the one opponent they couldn't beat, no matter what kind of plan they came up with. They thought it was poetic justice that it had been the greed-driven actions of Merla that had revealed Keith's heritage, a heritage that allowed their two friends to finally allow their hearts to have what they had desired for so long.

"Ah, this is a wonderful happy end," Pidge commented.

"It's just the beginning, Pidge," Lance stated.

"It's both," Hunk gave his opinion, "The perfect end to one story and the beginning of a new one."

"You're right my friend. It's both. And we will all make sure that the new story will be a happy one with less drama than the one that ends with this dance," Lance nodded, "Now how about we find ourselves some lovely ladies to enjoy the ball as well?"

"I'm game," Hunk agreed and laughing the three men went around the room to join the celebrations of one of the happiest moments in their friends' lives.


End file.
